PTI planning to steal next polls through e-voting: PMLN

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Central General Secretary Ahsan Iqbal has alleged that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is planning to steal the next general election through e-voting.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, he said special seats for overseas Pakistanis could be created, but the PTI wanted to steal the next elections through e-voting. He said Imran Khan had lost eight by-polls till date and he knew that “now the funeral for the PTI was about to take place” and that was why he was looking for a backdoor for re-entering the power corridors.

He said the PTI government presented the federal budget on Friday and before that, the government run a massive advertisement campaign, propagating that the country had changed and all problems of the common man had been solved.

“In the presence of inflation and joblessness, the government tall claims are equal to throwing dust in eyes of people,” he said.

The PMLN leader said the party supported the protests of government employees as 10% increase in their salaries was a joke and their salaries should be increased by 20 to 25%. Ahsan said opposition leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif would hold a press conference in Model Town in which he would expose tall claims of the government.

Ahsan said the incompetent government was even unable to complete the 12-year development plan, started by the PMLN government. He said the nation was suffering due to incompetence of the selected government. “The PMLN strongly condemns the law made in the name of Kulbhushan Jadhav,” he said adding the government passed two bills by bulldozing the parliamentary rules and regulations to give an NRO [deal] to the Indian spy. Ahsan said that till yesterday, the PTI used to taunt PMLN with Kulbhushan; “but now we’ll see who is the protector of Pakistan,” he added.

Ahsan said the PMLN used to pass laws with consensus in the past and always included the PTI members in the process. But, he added, no effort was made to reach consensus on the proposals of oppositions, which means that the PTI wanted to steal the next elections.

“If no one casts his vote, it does not mean that he should be expelled.

“Fawad Chaudhry knows nothing about e-voting machines. I am an engineer, I know more about technology. If e-voting is a solution, countries like the United States and the United Kingdom would have adopted it,” he claimed. “E-voting machines can be exposed to cyber attacks and the government has no plans to counter such attacks,” he said, adding those were sensitive issues and should jointly be discussed with opposition as well as Election Commission, but they did not consult with anyone. He said the opposition was not against the right to vote for overseas Pakistanis, “but what we say is that those living in France are not aware of the problems of small areas of the country”.