Former additional secretary of the Election commission of Pakistan Muhammad Afzal Khan has alleged that the general elections in May 2013 were rigged and that the people’s mandate was ‘stolen’. He said that former chief justices Iftikhar Chaudhry and Tassadduq Jillani were also involved in rigging the vote.
Khan made the allegation during an interview on a private television channel, in which he said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not win the elections in a free and fair manner. He said during the interview that the Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim had shut his eyes on the rigging. The former additional secretary said that the Election Commission had been put under tremendous pressure during the alleged rigging. Khan said that judges were also involved in fixing the vote and that hearings of voter fraud was deliberately delayed.
Reacting to the interview, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran khan commended Afzal Khan and said that the former additional secretary’s remarks vindicates the stand that he has been taking. Imran Khan said that Afzal Khan’s statements show that the position for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was untenable and again reiterated his demand that the premier resign. Former Law Minister Rana Sanaullah dismissed Afzal Khan’s remarks and said, “people like this are specially prepared for occasions such as this”. Sanaullah said that Imran Khan’s protest movement has been a flop and that Afzal Khan like the PTI chief was being used as a pawn. -dawn
