The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has dismissed the allegations of election rigging made by the commissioner of Rawalpindi division, Liaqat Ali Chatha, who resigned from his post on Saturday after admitting his involvement in manipulating the results of the Feb 8 polls.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the ECP said that no officer of the commission had instructed the commissioner to tamper with the election outcomes, and that the commissioner had no direct role in conducting the elections. The ECP also said that it would launch an inquiry into the matter as soon as possible.
Chatha, who was appointed as the commissioner of Rawalpindi division in January 2024, shocked the nation by holding a press conference on Saturday, where he confessed to rigging the elections in favour of at least 13 candidates in Rawalpindi division. He claimed that he was pressured by the ECP and other administrative institutions, including the police, to alter the votes of the candidates who were trailing behind by 50,000 votes each.
Chatha said that he had done injustice to the people of Rawalpindi division, and that he deserved to be hanged at the Kachehri Chowk in Rawalpindi. He also said that he was surrendering himself to the police for his crime.
Chatha’s shocking revelation came amid widespread protests by the opposition parties, especially the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and others, who accused the ruling party of massive electoral fraud in the recently concluded polls. The opposition parties have demanded a re-election under a neutral caretaker government.
The ECP, however, has defended the conduct of the elections, saying that it had managed to hold a peaceful and orderly polls on Feb 8, and that it was taking swift decisions on the complaints despite difficulties. The ECP also said that it had received the first result at 2 pm on the polling day, earlier than 4 am on the next day in 2018. The ECP added that the election results were completed in one and a half day, except for some constituencies, while it took three days in 2018.