ISLAMABAD, Feb 18: Jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party on Sunday demanded a judicial probe into growing allegations of vote rigging even as two major political parties failed to reach a power-sharing formula to form a coalition government.
Though Independent candidates backed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party won the maximum number of seats in Parliament, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – have announced that they will form a coalition government after the February 8 elections resulted in a hung Parliament.
The post-poll alliance by the PML-N and the PPP could mean that PTI will not be able to form the next federal government, prompting Khan’s party to allege that the two rival parties were trying to steal the people’s mandate with the help of the powerful establishment.
Khan’s beleaguered party received a major boost on Saturday when a senior government official in charge of the election process in the garrison city of Rawalpindi alleged that rigging took place and dragged the Chief Election Commissioner and the Chief Justice into it.
Buoyed by the allegations of vote rigging, the PTI on Sunday demanded a judicial probe into the manipulation of the results of the elections.
Rawalpindi Division Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha in a bombshell press conference on Saturday alleged that he oversaw the rigging to deprive the PTI of 13 seats which were given to losing candidates after fake votes were added to their name.
Chattha also claimed that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa were involved in the alleged rigging.
PTI leader Gohar Ali Khan at a press conference said that efforts were made to keep the party out of the electoral arena when people responding to the call Imran Khan went to the polling stations in huge numbers.
“We had won 180 seats in the National Assembly, 42 seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly, 115 in Punjab, 16 in Sindh, and four in Balochistan assembly,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Peoples Party met for the third time after deciding to unite for the formation of the government in Centre last week after the February 8 elections resulted in a hung Parliament.
The third meeting between the Contact and Coordination Committees of the two parties, which took place on Saturday, remained inconclusive and both decided to meet again on Monday to finalise the power-sharing formula.
A brief announcement issued by the PML-N after the meeting said that there had been “significant progress” in talks with both sides, stressing the need for a “strong democratic government”.
“The proposals put forth by both parties were thoroughly discussed, and while substantial progress was achieved, further deliberations are required to finalise the matters at hand,” a joint statement read.
Nawaz Sharif led PML-N has nominated Shehbaz Sharif for the Prime Minister’s post.
Independent candidates – a majority backed by former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI party won 93 National Assembly seats in the election.
The PML-N won 75 seats while the PPP came third with 54 seats. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) has also agreed to support them with their 17 seats.
To form a Government, a party must win 133 seats out of 265 contested seats in the 266-member National Assembly. (PTI)
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