Pak poll rigging: Chief Justice, chief poll commissioner involved?
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Islamabad: In Pakistan, a senior bureaucrat alleged that the chief election commissioner and the chief justice were involved in rigging recently conducted general elections. The officer resigned from office and stated that he takes the responsibility for all "this wrongdoing", PTI reported.
The resigned bureaucrat is former Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha, whose remarks came when jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party began nationwide protests alleging rigging of elections held on February 8.
Liaquat Ali Chattha said that those candidates who are losing were actually "made to win".
"I am taking the responsibility for all this wrongdoing and telling you that the chief election commissioner and the chief justice are also completely involved in this," he was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.
He said that he turned in his resignation after accepting the responsibility for manipulating the poll results.
According to him, he stabbed the country in its back, and it would not let 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 said.
He said that there was pressure on him, which took him to nearly commit suicide. But he decided better and took the matters before the public. "It is my request to the entire bureaucracy to not do anything wrong for all these politicians," he said.
However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) strongly rejected the claims by Chattha levelled against the chief election commissioner.
"The Election Commission of Pakistan strongly rejects the allegations levelled by Commissioner Rawalpindi on the chief election commissioner or the election commission, and no official of the election commission ever issued any instructions regarding changing the election results to Commissioner Rawalpindi," the ECO said in a press statement.
"Neither is the commissioner of any division ever appointed as a DRO, RO or presiding officer nor do they ever play a direct role in the conduct of elections," it said.