ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday accused the Chief Justice of Pakistan of delaying tactics to avoid addressing the party’s petition seeking a probe into the alleged February 8 polls fraud, calling it a deliberate attempt to cover up election theft.
The PTI is demanding an urgent hearing of the plea based on the revelations in the Pattan report.
A PTI spokesperson stated that the Pattan report uncovered startling information regarding election theft, revealing that Form-45s from 20 provincial constituencies and one national assembly constituency were missing from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) website. These constituencies are all located in Lahore. Instead, the ECP had uploaded Form-46s as substitutes for the missing Form-45s.
The PTI spokesperson described the February 8 general elections as the most rigged, controversial, and non-transparent in the country’s history, evidenced by national and international outcries against the alleged fraud. He cited a press conference by Liaquat Chatta, Commissioner Rawalpindi, on February 17, which exposed the central figures behind the rigged elections.
According to the PTI, a systematic conspiracy was executed to exclude the party from the electoral process and political arena from April 9, 2022, to February 8, 2024, resulting in fraudulent election outcomes. The spokesperson claimed that state machinery was used to strip PTI of its electoral symbol, depriving the party and its supporters of their political rights.
The PTI highlighted that independent and unbiased institutions, including European Union observers, Fafen, Pattan, Pildat, and Commonwealth observers, have raised serious questions about the transparency and fairness of the February 8 elections. The spokesperson asserted that Pakistan’s democratic future, rule of law, and economic prosperity hinge on the transparency of elections.
Senior members of the Supreme Court full bench hearing the reserved seats case have expressed serious reservations regarding the ECP’s role. The PTI called on the Chief Justice of Pakistan to stop secretly facilitating those who allegedly stole the mandate and to restore the rightful mandate to its original owners.
The PTI urged the Chief Justice to uphold the constitutional role of restoring the fundamental rights of the people and ensuring the supremacy of the Constitution. The spokesperson warned that if the Chief Justice fails to act justly, history will not forgive him.
