Liaquat Ali Chatta, Commissioner of Rawalpindi in Pakistan, accused of confusion in the general elections last Saturday. Since then the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has been in action. Governments around the world, including Imran Khan’s party PTI, also questioned the credibility of the election. Claims of election fraud have gained momentum after the Rawalpindi Commissioner’s statement. PTI party supporters have taken to the streets to protest the alleged rigging.
The Election Commission of Pakistan has formed a high-level committee to probe the allegations against Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatta. A press release issued by the ECP said that the committee will include senior officials of the Election Commission, including the Secretary, Special Secretary and Additional Director General Law.
According to Pakistani media reports, the committee will record the statements of returning officers and district returning officers, after which the full report will be submitted to the Election Commission within 3 days. Based on this report, it will be decided whether any legal action will be taken against Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatta, including contempt of ECP.
The allegations were made by the Commissioner of Rawalpindi
Liaquat Ali Chatta while talking to the media at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium said that during the election there was massive manipulation of votes in which he was also involved. Candidates who were winning by 70,000-80,000 votes were defeated by using fake seals, he said. Apart from him, Chief Election Commissioner and Chief Justice are also fully involved in this manipulation. The commissioner said, ‘I didn’t like all this, so I resigned from my post.’ He is currently in police custody.
Will there be another election in Pakistan?
The Election Commission of Pakistan called an emergency meeting after the controversial statement of Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatta. In which Commissioner Liaquat’s allegations were completely rejected. A high-level committee was also constituted to investigate the allegations. Can there be re-election in Pakistan?
Going by the statement of Saif Anwar Jappa, the new District Returning Officer of Rawalpindi, the chances of re-election are looking slim. Saif Anwar assured that the elections were held with complete transparency and without any external pressure. He clarified that the role of the Election Commissioner was only coordination.
Before being taken into police custody, Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatta had said that there was no need for re-election. Actual election results can be known only on the basis of Form 45. Form 45 contains the details of the votes cast in the polling station of the area. Various types of information including how many votes were cast in the polling station, which candidate got how many votes etc. are given in Form 45. For this reason Form 45 is also called result of count.
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