Imran Khan confirms writing letter to IMF, seeks election audit before new loan

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan confirmed on Friday that he sent a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), demanding to hold an audit of the election results before approving any new loan for Islamabad.

“The letter has been written to the IMF and will be dispatched today. If the country gets a loan in such a situation, then who will return it?” Khan told the media during a hearing of the £190 million reference at Adiala Jail.

The former prime minister warned that the loan would lead to more poverty, adding that till there is investment in the country loans of the country will keep on increasing.

Khan's update about the letter comes a day after PTI senator Ali Zafar announced that the party founder had decided to write a letter to the global lender urging it to call for an audit of the February 8 election before it continues talks with Islamabad for a new loan programme.

However, it remains to be seen if the PTI founder’s letter would lead to the desired result he seeks as the IMF today expressed willingness to work with the new Pakistani government while ignoring his demand.

Meanwhile, former finance minister Ishaq Dar said the letter holds no significance, adding that if the PTI founder has written against the country’s national interest then it is condemnable.

“Writing anything for personal gain is shameful. PTI founder’s letter will have no significance,” Dar, a senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), told media outside the Punjab Assembly.

Commissioner’s software updated: Imran

“First political stability should be brought to Pakistan,” said Khan. He added that institutions were destroyed for Nawaz Sharif’s “selection”.

“Institutions, NAB everything was destroyed to select Nawaz Sharif. I was made zero for Nawaz Sharif then rigging was done in elections,” the PTI founder also said.

Talking about former Rawalpindi commissioner Liaqat Ali Chatha's rigging allegations and their withdrawal, he claimed: “Commissioner was picked up and assaulted, now his software has been updated.”

The PTI founder was talking about the dramatic development that emerged last Saturday when former Rawalpindi commissioner Chatha tendered his resignation, which he said was out of "guilty conscience" for abetting large-scale electoral rigging in the garrison city, further raising the political mercury in the country.

The commissioner, in the rare press conference, took responsibility for the “rigging” that he claimed took place in Rawalpindi Division. “We converted the losers into winners with 50,000 votes margin,” he stated.

In response to his allegations, the PTI, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), and other political parties — most of whom had already rejected the election results — demanded an investigation into the matter.

But, the matter took a fresh turn when Chatta on Thursday withdrew all his allegations related to rigging in the elections, saying he was “extremely ashamed, embarrassed”, and claimed that he made the move in coordination with a PTI leader.

"I take full responsibility for my actions and surrender myself before the authorities for any kind of legal action," Chatha said in a statement to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Imran, Bushra to be indicted on Feb 27

The accountability court hearing the £190 million reference in today’s hearing announced that Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi, the co-accused in the case, will be indicted on February 27.

Judge Nasir Javed after making the announcement adjourned the hearing of the reference till February 27.