Imran announces sit-in outside ECP building on October 4

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan announced a protest demonstration in front of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) building in Islamabad on October 4 and said if the four “controversial” ECP members continued to hold their offices, the PTI would not contest the by-polls.
He also announced fielding Aleem Khan and Jehangir Khan Tareen as the party’s candidates for the upcoming by-elections in Lahore NA-122 and Lodhran NA-154, respectively.
The by-elections in these two constituencies will be held on October 11.
Addressing his supporters at the Chairman Secretariat, he also threw a challenge to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to contest polls from NA-122, the seat from where Imran Khan lost elections to Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, the de-seated speaker of the National Assembly in 2002 and later in the 2013 polls.
Imran Khan came down hard on Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) members for misleading the nation by linking the 2014 Islamabad sit-in with the military establishment.
He said he kept seeking justice for two and a half years and went from pillar to post and raised a just demand of reassessing the results of only four National Assembly constituencies.
He said he struggled not for any personal gain but to protect the rights of the people and preserve the sanctity of the public’s votes. He said former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry refused to hear the plea and the PTI candidates had to spend a huge amount of money for legal procedures but all went in vain.
He said the PTI was forced to take to the streets and launch a protest movement to seek justice which had been constantly denied to the party whose mandate was stolen in the 2013 elections.
He said a record number of 413 election petitions were filed against winning candidates in the last general elections and the PTI only demanded the examining of four constituencies.
Imran said the PTI workers were fully trained to foil any attempt to rig the polls in future and added that cameras would be installed at every polling station to monitor the process. In NA-122, he said, the investigators found 53,000 bogus votes and the story was no different in other constituencies.
He said he had high regard for the current Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retd) Sardar Raza Khan but had doubts about the integrity of the ECP members.
He also expressed disappointment at the response received from the ECP to his letter, written after the release of a report by the Judicial Commission.
Imran also criticised the government for threatening Election Tribunal Judge Kazim Ali Malik. The judge ruled 30 times in favour of the PML-N and one time against it, he said adding that Pervaiz Rashid and Rana Sanaullah hurled abuses and threats at the judge. He slammed Rana Sanaullah for issuing false statements about the Kasur scandal.
PTI central leaders including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Jehangir Khan Tareen, Shireen Mazari and Chaudhry Sarwar were also present on the occasion.