After a fractured general election mandate, Commissioner Rawalpindi Division resigned from his post in protest against electoral irregularities, especially rigging…reports Asian Lite News
The Election Commission of Pakistan on Saturday rejected the allegations against the Rawalpindi Commissioner, Liaqat Ali Chatha, regarding rigging in the general election 2024, reported ARY News.
After a fractured general election mandate, Commissioner Rawalpindi Division Liaquat Ali Chatta resigned from his post on Saturday in protest against electoral irregularities, especially rigging.
According to the report, the Commissioner held a press conference at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in which he tendered his resignation, saying that he had done injustice to the people of Rawalpindi Division.
He admitted that “rigging” took place in Rawalpindi Division and took responsibility for it.
“We converted the losers into winners with a margin of 50,000 votes,” he claimed, and he surrendered himself before the police.
“I apologize to the returning officers of my division,” he said, adding that his subordinates were crying about what they were directed to do.
Chattha claimed that even today the election staff are affixing fake stamps on the ballot papers.
“We wronged the country…I should be executed in Rawalpindi’s Kachehri Chowk,” he lamented.
Stressing that he was under pressure from social media and overseas Pakistanis, the official revealed that he even attempted suicide this morning, The Express Tribune reported.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government has rejected the allegation of rigging by the senior official.
Speaking to Geo News, Caretaker Information Minister Amir Mir said that this is neither a revelation nor a confession of the crime, this is a claim and an allegation to harm the credibility of the elections.
He said that he strongly rejects the allegations made by Chatta. Mir said that the person who talks about suicide can only be a psychopath, adding that Chatta was heading towards retirement on March 13.
“A few weeks before his retirement, he is making a political stunt. I think he wants to pursue a political career,” he added.
When asked about the claims Chatta made about people working under him crying on the day of the elections, Mir said that the media did not see anyone crying.
“The things he is saying, can a normal person make these claims? Especially a person who is appointed to a commissioner’s post. Why did he not come out on the day of the election when all of this was happening? Why did he remember this 10 days after the elections?” he questioned.
Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha has said that “stabbing the country in its back does not let” him sleep.
Following the Pakistan general elections, widespread protests have been held in Balochistan, Sindh and other parts of the country against alleged rigging in the 2024 general elections.
Meanwhile, following the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) announcement to protest demonstrations in the capital, the Islamabad Deputy Commissioner refused to grant permission to hold protests on Saturday, as reported by ARY News.
The administration rejected the PTI’s application, maintaining that demonstrations cannot be allowed given Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) which is in force in the capital city.
Further, the administration has also asked the citizens to avoid getting involved in any political gathering.
“Islamabad police should take action against those participating in the protest demonstration,” it added. The Imran Khan-led party PTI called for nationwide protests today against “rigging” in the 2024 general elections.
PTI is headed by former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is in jail in cases filed against him. (ANI)
PML-N Slams Imran For Seeking US Interference
Slamming Imran Khan “for seeking United States interference,” the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz alleged that the former prime minister is undermining the credibility of general elections through an “organized narrative based on lies”, The Express Tribune reported.
According to the report, PML-N Central Secretary Information, Marriyum Aurangzeb, on Friday said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader’s invitation to the US to interfere in the country’s elections goes against Pakistan’s sovereignty.
She emphasised the need to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty and urged those with election grievances to take their complaints to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The PML-N leader also aimed the media’s role in spreading what she dubbed as “propaganda” about inconclusive results, adding that the laws of the land should prevail.
The PML-N leader claimed that PTI candidates started serving up fake and forged Form 45 to the media, even before the official compilation process had begun. She alleged that these forms were not in the hands of polling agents or candidates at that point. As a result, the news media broadcasted partial and unofficial results, creating a false impression of a PTI-backed landslide victory, The Express Tribune reported.
Recounting the PML-N’s swift response, Aurangzeb stated that they contacted their candidates and election staff to confirm the authenticity of the results. According to her, PTI’s Form 45 was either unstamped, unsigned, or outright counterfeit. Therefore, she alleged, that when the PTI went to the election commission with its grievances, it brought screenshots of news channels instead of the supposed Form 45.
According to her, the PTI has a knack for firing up a media propaganda machine instead of taking their tall tales to the proper legal channels, adding that this tactic was a smokescreen.
She further said that the PTI’s rigging claims are baseless and they lack any evidence to support its accusations. This playbook, she pointed out, was also played out in 2014 after the elections and during the PML-N’s time in power “when fake documents were waved in press conferences but were dishonourably dismissed in the court of law”.
“Why the PTI was presenting their fake proof in front of international media when there are appropriate legal forums? They should have gone to the election commission, to the election tribunals and the courts if they would not be satisfied.”
“Virtually all international pre-poll surveys showed the PMLN as the front runner in the 2024 elections, so they know very well where the majority vote of the people was cast,” she added.
Marriyum highlighted the apparent hypocrisy of the PTI, noting their double standards. She said that the PTI seemed to conveniently label elections in constituencies it won as transparent, but cry foul of rigging whenever it faced defeat, The Express Tribune reported.
She questioned why the elections in K-P were considered untainted if rigging was allegedly rampant in this particular election. According to her, the genuine Form 45 are the ones officially posted on the ECP’s website.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner Rawalpindi Division Liaquat Ali Chatta resigned from his post on Saturday in protest against electoral irregularities, especially rigging.
According to the report, the Commissioner held a press conference at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in which he tendered his resignation, saying that he had done injustice to the people of Rawalpindi Division.
He admitted that “rigging” took place in Rawalpindi Division and took responsibility for it.
“We converted the losers into winners with a margin of 50,000 votes,” he claimed, and he surrendered himself before the police.
“I apologize to the returning officers of my division,” he said, adding that his subordinates were crying about what they were directed to do.
Chattha claimed that even today the election staff are affixing fake stamps on the ballot papers.”We wronged the country…I should be executed in Rawalpindi’s Kachehri Chowk,” he lamented. (ANI)
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