Pakistan official admits involvement in rigging election outcomes | Elections News | USAEMALL.com

A senior bureaucrat in Pakistan has stated he helped rig Pakistan’s elections, every week after polls marred by allegations of manipulation returned no clear winner.

On Saturday, Liaqat Ali Chattha, commissioner of the garrison metropolis of Rawalpindi, the place the nation’s highly effective army has its headquarters, stated he would hand himself over to police and step down from his place.

“We converted the losers into winners, reversing margins of 70,000 votes in 13 national assembly seats,” he instructed reporters, additionally implicating the pinnacle of the election fee and the nation’s high decide.

According to Pakistan’s Dawn News, the commissioner admitted he was “deeply involved in serious crime like mega election rigging 2024” and stated that “stabbing the country in its back” doesn’t permit him sleep.

“I should be punished for the injustice I have done and others who were involved in this injustice should also be punished,” he added.

After Chattha’s announcement, Rawalpindi senior superintendent of police operations, Kamran Asghar, instructed Dawn the commissioner had not been arrested as no case was filed in opposition to him.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s election fee rejected Chattha’s allegations, however stated in an announcement that it might “hold an enquiry”.

In a information launch, the electoral watchdog additionally stated none of its officers ever issued any directions to Chattha for a “change in the election results”.

But a number one advocacy group, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, stated that this confession revealed the “involvement of the state bureaucracy in rigging in Pakistan is beginning to be exposed”.

Thousands protest

Meanwhile on Saturday, hundreds of individuals rallied in additional than a dozen cities, together with the capital Islamabad, claiming that the vote was rigged.

Reporting from Islamabad, Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder stated tens of hundreds got here out to protest even if the federal government had imposed a restriction on public gatherings.

“People are coming from all walks of life. Women, children and entire families … have converged at the Press Club in Islamabad. They say their mandate has been stolen and the government is trying to put an illegitimate government into power which lost the election.”

After practically every week of political drama following a fractured mandate delivered by the nation’s voters within the February 8 elections, a six-party alliance led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), which gained 75 seats, and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which secured 54 seats is about to kind the following authorities.

However, based on the official outcomes the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the occasion of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who’s presently incarcerated on a number of convictions, emerged as a transparent winner of the elections, successful a complete of 93 seats.

‘Incriminating’

In a publish on X on Saturday, PMLN termed the Rawalpindi Commissioner’s actions as “a cheeky move a few days before his retirement” and “a cheap publicity tactic”. Chattha is because of retire on March 13.

“The person has alleged that the PMLN candidates were pressured to give a lead of 70, 70,000, while the facts are completely different from his accusation,” the political occasion stated.

However, from jail, PTI’s Khan known as Chattha’s confession “incriminating”.

“His statement serves as a stark revelation of the countrywide systematic manipulation of election results where PTI’s significant leads were deceitfully tampered into losses, depriving the people of their rightful mandate, not only in the National Assembly but also in Provincial Assemblies,” Khan stated in a publish on the social media platform X.

“PTI also calls for a fair investigation and meaningful trial of all those involved in this brazen mandate theft,” he added.

Senior PTI official Ali Muhammad Khan instructed reporters in Islamabad that Chattha’s assertion proved his occasion was cheated. “We must be returned our mandate,” he stated.