If any general backed Dharna, govt must try him: Imran

LAHORE: Rejecting the allegations of receiving favours and funds from generals to stage the sit-in, PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Thursday said he would quit politics if the government proves these charges against him.
He said the government should fulfill its wish if it wanted to de-seat the PTI members, adding that his party would go for by-elections and return to parliament in a democratic way.“I am ready to face a trial, and if the government thinks that any general has supported me, it must try him as well and set up a commission to probe these allegations. I will quit politics if any charge of receiving funds from army officials is proven against me,” said Imran Khan while speaking at a news conference.
PTI leaders Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Jehangir Khan Tareen, Chaudhry Sarwar and Shafqat Mehmood were also present on the occasion. Imran said whoever had received favours or funding from the state should be tried and the Asghar Khan case should proceed further.
“If they are willing to de-seat us, then let them move forward. The PML-N must end playing a double game. If it is against de-seating, then it must express it in clear terms; otherwise, we are ready to contest by-elections and will return to the assemblies after winning,” Imran said while responding to a query.
He said his struggle was for a cause and his viewpoint had been proven by the Judicial Commission report which accepted the PTI’s stance on the role of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). He said although the commission could have done a lot more to hold a probe into rigging, he was hopeful that the report would pave the way for transparent elections in future.
Imran said for the first time in the country’s history, a commission was set up on the demand of a political party whose mandate had been hijacked. The last general elections were unique in a way that the winners as well as losers were terming them rigged, he said, adding that the failure of ECP in holding fair polls had become evident with the report.
Imran said as the PTI head, he held the chief justice of Pakistan in great esteem and pressed the party supporters, particularly those associated with the social media, to avoid criticising him. They staged a sit-in that continued for 126 days and no other party to-date had matched that struggle, he said, adding that the Judicial Commission report was a victory of the PTI and it was time to move ahead.
He said unless an effective system of accountability was launched in Pakistan, the situation couldn’t improve and for that purpose, the ECP officials responsible for mismanagement must be questioned. He said he had also written to the chief election commissioner to discuss the loopholes and violations of law in the last general elections.
To a question, he said the present chief election commissioner wasn’t responsible for rigging as he did not hold the office when 2013 general elections were held.Imran said “we have to take measures to improve our election system like the way India did since 1990.” He said due to an effective election system, the democratic process had strengthened in India and it was ahead of Pakistan in terms of progress.
He said despite the participation of huge population in the electoral process, the credibility of questions had not been challenged.Expressing complete support to the traders’ strike call, Imran said the PTI was standing behind the business community. He said rather than imposing undue taxes, the government must put its own house in order and bring the rich people into the tax net properly.
He said it was really a matter of concern that the amount of money laundered to Dubai during the last few years was more than the loan Pakistan had to seek from the IMF. He said the country’s wealth should benefit the country first and poor population of the country should be provided relief.
He also urged his party workers to get ready for the local government polls and stated that he would also meet the party’s old guards as well as newcomers in Islamabad soon to reorganise the party structure and discuss intra-party polls.
He also said that the party would take action against the members who had awarded tickets to their close relatives in violation of merit in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the local government polls.Online adds: Imran said the Judicial Commission had left the work ‘incomplete’ and the probe should have been taken to its logical conclusion.
Mumtaz Alvi adds from Islamabad: Imran Khan on Thursday wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Muhammad Raza, calling on him to begin criminal prosecutions against the poll officials for breach of election duties during the 2013 elections.
In a detailed letter based on the recent findings of the commission, Imran said that criminal proceedings must be started under Section 91 of the Representation of the People Act, 1976 against all the concerned officials for breach of official duty.
The PTI chief said the Inquiry Commission observed that lack of planning by the Election Commission and non-compliance with election laws was also seen in Balochistan. It was noted under the Representation of People Act, 1976, it was the responsibility of the Election Commission to keep the election process in safe custody but the latter was using provincial treasuries, expressing doubts whether this was as per the law. It had also expressed concern over the inadequate and haphazard manner of storage of election material.
He noted in the letter, quoting the commission’s observations, that 2013 election was not a snap election. There was a plenty of time for the Election Commission to organise the 2013 elections, which is the single most important task which it must prepare for and undertake. The report stated that the Election Commission had ample experience of the past polls to draw upon.
Imran continued that the commission, however, found that the evidence before it suggested poor planning on the part of the Election Commission. He said the commission found that the Election Commission did not seem to have any way of knowing how things were progressing on the ground either prior to the election or during election day.
“There was no monitoring wing in the Election Commission. There seemed to be no way for the Election Commission to know whether or not its directions were being implemented. The provincial election commissioners did not seem to report the matters to the Election Commission during the polling day and that the Election Commission had no effective system to monitor on the ground to such an extent that even the numbers of ballots requisitioned per constituency were not received by anybody to ensure their uniformity as required by the concerned quarters,” he said.
He also referred to the commission’s concern that the Election Commission failed to establish and operate on the election day an effective result management system (RMS) and this led to suspicion of rigging especially as RMS was meant to deal with important task of Form XIV ( contents of account) could not deliver.
Imran wrote that the Inquiry Commission specifically noted that Nadra and the Election Commission failed to develop an ink, which could verify the exact caster of vote. Moreover, the commission found that the Election Commission’s decision to rely on only four printing presses was fraught with danger.