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Imran asks Nawaz to resign, announce fresh election under new EC
* PTI chief says he won’t call off Aug 14 sit-in until PML-N govt goes home * Wants those responsible for rigging in general election tried for high treason
By Omer Farooq Khan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign and announce fresh elections under the new election commission.
Imran Khan vowed that he would not call off his party’s sit-in protest, following a long march on the federal capital on eve of Independence Day, until the removal of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s government. “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should immediately resign and announce re-elections. The mandate of this government is fake as it grabbed power through rigged elections,” Imran Khan said at a crowded press conference in Islamabad.
“Barring the 1970 polls, no free and fair elections were held in the country, but the 2013 elections had broken all previous records of rigging,” Imran said, adding that on August 11 he would reveal how the last general elections were rigged and who was responsible for it. “Those who rigged the elections should be tried under Article 6 of the constitution,” he said. The PTI chief said that the nation never saw independence as it was stolen from them since Pakistan came into being as an independent state.
“Democracy means independence but the nation has been denied this right since inception. We are not derailing democracy, but fight for dethroning monarchs,” Imran said. The invocation of Article 245 in Islamabad, Imran said, was the biggest undemocratic move taken by the government. The PTI chief further said that he could have easily rejected the results of May 2013 “fraudulent elections” but had refrained due to poor economic and law and order situation in the country.
While claiming that organised rigging took place in at least 90 constituencies, Imran Khan said that his party asked for re-checking of election results in only four constituencies. But, PTI leader said, the government was in no mood to address their grievances, rather, the PML-N in conjunction with the election commission, has introduced a new terminology for rigging – known as the ‘typo error’ which only benefits the candidates of PML-N and no one else.
“We knocked at every door for justice. We requested the government, went to the election tribunal and Supreme Court but our demands were not met. Our candidates failed to get justice despite spending millions of rupees to investigate what actually happened in the elections. We were left with no other option than to come on the roads,” he said while promising that August 14 will see the biggest rally ever held in country’s history. “It will be followed by the biggest sit-in of the history of Pakistan,” he maintained.
Imran Khan warned the Punjab and Islamabad police against taking any action against his supporters. “If they show any highhandedness or make arrests, let me make it clear once more that then the entire country will be paralysed,” he asserted. “After 14 months of trying to find legal means, we are finally exercising our democratic right to get on the streets and demand justice,” said Imran.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk