“No one can blackmail me for the ministerial posts. If someone tried to blackmail me, we will dissolve the assembly and hold the polls afresh,” asserted Imran while talking to media persons after meeting with acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Nasirul Mulk here.
Already irked by reports of corruption and nepotism in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Imran had recently said the PTI would prefer to sit in the opposition if the level of governance was not improved there.
He was responding to the creation of a forward bloc in the PTI Khyber Pakhtunkhwa whom he was to meet any time Friday.Imran said it was the democratic right of lawmakers to apprise him of their concerns but no one could blackmail him for a place in the provincial cabinet.
About the last year’s general election, he said today the judiciary and the media were free but the Election Commission was not. “Without free and transparent election, real democracy is impossible,” he maintained.
Those who made their way to the legislature by coercion, corruption and rigging, he continued, could never bring about a revolution or combat corruption. Regarding his meeting with the acting chief election commissioner, Imran said they had conveyed their concerns to the acting chief election commissioner and he had listened to them with patience and responded positively.
He recalled how they had been demanding verification of thumb impressions of voters in only four constituencies whereas some 70 petitions were with the election tribunals.Imran called for the initiation of criminal proceedings against the presiding officers and putting them behind the bars for involvement in rigging.
In this context, he referred to a polling station where the total numbers of registered voters was 1,500 but 8,000 votes were polled.He demanded action against such election officers under Article 6 of the Constitution for denying people their fundamental right to vote. He referred to the 2,100-page white paper his party had released showing how the returning officers and presiding officers indulged in rigging.
The PTI chief castigated the ruling PML-N and PPP for sticking to their old-fashioned policy under an underhand deal.Imran said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would be ready for the local bodies election by April 30, as delimitation had been completed and no one had objected to the process.
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