ISLAMABAD: On Tuesday, senators from the opposition denounced the purported election tampering and chastised Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja for his perceived “inability” to maintain electoral integrity.
On February 8, Senator Mushtaq Ahmed of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) urged that CEC Raja resign from his office due to the lack of transparent polls.
In an address to the Senate today in Islamabad, the JI senator said that the elections were rigged and that they would establish a rigged administration.
The senator made grave accusations against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), claiming that it committed treason and ought to apologize to the country.
“An action under Article 6 of the Constitution ought to be taken against the CEC, as the ECP received Rs. 50 billion from the national exchequer, but it was unable to conduct transparent elections,” he claimed.
The JI senator demanded that the money lost on elections be reimbursed and that CEC Raja be sued, as well as the creation of an independent Supreme Court-level judicial committee.
He insisted that the judicial commission look into the Form 45 issue.
The senator also criticized the government for suspending the social media site X, claiming that doing so had violated people’s rights and caused harm to the economy and educational system. He insisted on the return of all social
After being blocked for more than 36 hours on Saturday (February 17), X, formerly known as Twitter, was partially restored on Monday, but it is still occasionally unavailable in Pakistan.
According to Ahmed, individuals involved in rigging were tampering with the integrity of the country. He added that the fact that internet services were suspended proved the polls were not transparent and that social media sites were taken down because the authorities were afraid after permitting rigging.
The commissioner for Rawalpindi provided information regarding electoral irregularities to some extent. Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman, the leader of JI Karachi, claimed that you forced him to win from a constituency in which he was the runner-up when he declared that a protest would be held.
Irfan Siddiqui of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) took the floor and addressed the PTI members. He asked why the former ruling party is not reaching out to other political parties on the matter of suspected poll-rigging, while they are reaching out to Emir Fazlur Rehman of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).
As Siddiqui criticized the PTI for taking a contradicting stand on election results in the province in question as well as other locations, he added, “This is the same election commissioner who conducted polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)”.
The veteran member of the PML-N emphasized that the future government will be established even though none of his party’s, the PTI’s, or the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) seats are necessary.
PTI Senator Waleed Iqbal made a statement on the function of returning officers (ROs) in polls, stating that if the laws passed by the parliament have not been put into effect, the legislators “should go home”.
The senator said, “The chief election commissioner (CEC) didn’t even [bothered to] brief the media [on the February 8 polls,” and demanded that the commission address claims of election manipulation.
Regarding the disruptions to the internet, the PTI leader asked why, given that the polling process was completed during the day, the internet services were closed at night.
Senator Shafiq Tareen of the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) demanded a probe into the reported billions of rupees that returning officers (ROs) stole from candidates in bribes during the discussion.
The legislator emphasized, “[Authorities] should probe the [alleged] Rs50 to 60 billion taken in bribes.”
Tareen bemoaned that the candidate who had withdrew in favor of Mahmood Khan Achakzai was “made to win” and declared, “People’s mandate was stolen [as] ROs took tens of millions in bribes from losing candidates [to change the results]”.
