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JHANG: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had been planning to rig the upcoming by-polls and that they had coopted the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and a ‘Mr. X’ in Lahore and his accomplice, ‘Mr. Y’ in Multan are allegedly attempting to rig the elections.
He said this while addressing a political rally in Jhang ahead of by-polls on 20 vacant seats of the Punjab Assembly this weekend.
He said that PTI is attempting to protect the state against ‘slaves of the US’, as he urged voters and supporters to stand guard against alleged poll rigging in the upcoming Punjab by-elections.
He started off his speech by telling his supporters that they had to go back to the polls because their candidate from this constituency had sold his conscience and become a turncoat.
The former prime minister said that during his tenure, he had tried to introduce electronic voting systems in the country to eradicate rigging.
“The chief election commissioner also did not allow us to introduce electronic voting machines,” he said, alleging collusion.
The PTI chief pointed to the recent local body elections, there were widespread complaints of rigging from all parties.
He further alleged that despite changing rules for Senate elections and even the Supreme Court issued directions, the chief election commissioner refused to implement the rules.
He added that Yousaf Raza Gilani’s son, Ali Gilani was caught red-handed committing horse-trading but he has yet to be punished by the CEC.
Khan said that the PTI representative from Jhang has changed its loyalty. He continued that turncoats sell their consciences and violate the Constitution for personal benefits. “Pakistanis are a nation with dignity who will never bow their heads before any power except Allah Almighty and never sell their consciences.”
“Our ideological leaders are Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Muhammad Iqbal who were honest and men of principles. Unfortunately, we fail to become a great nation over failure to adopt principles based on justice.”
“These turncoats use to become part of the US conspiracy and topple an elected government. Sunday’s election will decide the fate of the country. We have to save our country from the US slaves by bringing people to the polling stations to reject these turncoats,” he added.
While criticizing the present government, Khan said that the corrupt rulers were involved in giving bribes to the returning officers (ROs) and cast bogus votes. “We are training our polling agents to stop the vote-rigging.”
“Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) has never done anything in an honest way. We are not only contesting the turncoats but the Sharif families and the election commission. Nawaz Sharif had constructed 18 factories by acquiring funds from the government banks and waived off the loans after coming into power,” said Khan.
The former prime minister said the nation’s progress is not because of the resources but because of the moral standards as he recalled how – after reaching Motorway today – he witnessed the photos of two convicts including Maryam Nawaz and Nawaz Sharif.