PPP accuses Senate secretary of rigging

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader and Provincial Minister of Sindh for Education Saeed Ghani Saturday accused Senate secretary of his involvement in the rigging and installation of spy cameras in the Senate hall and demanded his dismissal and also to put him in jail.

“The Secretary Senate should tell that who installed those spy cameras,” he said while addressing a press conference with Nazir Dhoki and Capt. (R) Wasif Sayed at the PPP media office in Islamabad on Saturday.

Saeed Ghani said that Information Minister Shibli Faraz had said that the government would do anything to win the Senate chairman election and his body language was telling everyone that he could break the laws and rules to achieve his goal and he exactly did that.

Ghani said that there is a long list of rigging evidences in the Senate election as in the morning spy cameras were discovered on the polling booth by senators Mustafa Khokhar and Musaddiq Malik. He said those cameras were installed to monitor their own members and this was a criminal act by the government. “It was a joke that when the government was caught red handed it started accusing opposition of installing those spy cameras,” he said.

Saeed Ghani said the Senate secretary should have been dismissed along with the security staff of the Senate.

He said that Senator Farooq Naek was the polling agent, who along with his colleagues, were repeatedly told by the Senate secretary that the stamp should be applied anywhere in the box. He said that PPP senators specifically asked secretary Senate that if the stamp is over the name of the candidate then would it be valid so he said that it will be perfectly all right. “Then secretary Senate said that the presiding officer is overruling him,” he said.

Ghani said that Senate secretary is also involved in the rigging and he should tell that who installed those spy cameras. He demanded the dismissal of secretary Senate and to put him in jail.

He said the instructions, which were pasted, also say that the stamp should be in the box containing candidates’ names. “There was only one box for each candidate so the voters could stamp anywhere in the box,” he said. He said the instructions were issued by the Senate Secretariat both in Urdu and English.

Saeed Ghani said the seven votes which were illegally rejected by the presiding officer Muzaffar Shah contained stamp within the box of Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani.

He said that the perception that voters intentionally wasted their votes is totally incorrect because if they wanted to waste their votes there were several other ways they could have done that.

Ghani said that the decision to approach courts will be taken by the leadership with the consultation of PDM leaders. “Muzaffar Shah, by his unconstitutional ruling, has ruined his reputation if he had any,” he said. He concluded by saying that the PTI is a blot on the democracy of the country.