Alvi apologises for ‘35 punctures’ statement

KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) MNA Dr. Arif Alvi on Thursday tendered a public apology on Twitter for the ’35 punctures’ statement.

The apology comes after PTI Chairman Imran Khan in an exclusive interview in Hamid Mir’s program ‘Capital Talk’ on Wednesday said that his claim of '35 punctures', which referred to alleged electoral rigging in 35 constituencies of Punjab, was nothing more than a political statement.

Alvi tweeted today:

It is time to apologise for 35 punctures. Many rumours regarding source of information & content were afloat and I believed some of them

— Dr. Arif Alvi (@ArifAlvi) July 2, 2015

However, Alvi also added PTI Central Information Secretary, Naeem ul Haque’s tweet in which Haque claimed that “Of course the 35 puncture story was political but also correct.”

Mr @naeemul_haque believes the 35 puncture story is correct & he has some source of direct information which I don't https://t.co/T0xMv2QIIk

— Dr. Arif Alvi (@ArifAlvi) July 2, 2015

Hamid Mir yesterday had asked PTI Chairman Imran Khan as to why he shied away from bringing up the issue of '35 punctures' before the judicial commission probing the rigging allegations.

To which Khan replied that Brigadier (Retd) Samson Simon heard about the '35 punctures' from Agha Murtaza Poya and that a message of '35 punctures' was shared on social media in a tweet.

“Political statement means that Brigadier Samson told us, he heard it from Agha Murtaza Poya, and so it was tweeted and became the '35 punctures',” he said.