Pakistan Electoral Official Resigns, Alleges CEC And Chief Justice Involved In Poll-Rigging

Former Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha said that the candidates who were "losing" the polls "were made to win".

Representational Image.

Source : Getty

A senior Pakistani bureaucrat resigned from his job on Saturday, alleging that the chief election commissioner and chief justice were complicit in poll-rigging in the recently held national assembly election, news agency PTI reported. He accepted "responsibility for all this wrongdoing." Former Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha's remarks came after incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party launched national rallies over alleged cheating and snatching of its mandate in the February 8 elections.

Chattha told reporters at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium that the candidates who were "losing" the polls "were 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 by Dawn in its report. 

Chattha tendered his resignation from his office after "accepting responsibility" for manipulation of election results, it said.

Chattha stated that “stabbing the country in its back does 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.

The former official claimed that there was "pressure" on him to the point that he considered suicide, but he ultimately decided to reveal the facts to the public.

“It is my request to the entire bureaucracy to not do anything wrong for all these politicians,” he was quoted as saying by PTI in its report.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has fiercely denied Chattha's charges against the chief election commissioner.

In a press statement, it said: "The Election Commission of Pakistan strongly rejects the allegations levelled by the Commissioner Rawalpindi on the chief election commissioner or the election commission and no official of the election commission never issued any instructions regarding changing the election results to the Commissioner Rawalpindi. 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."