Imran Khan to write letter to IMF about ‘election rigging’, says Barrister Ali Zafar

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Barrister Ali Zafar on Thursday said the party founder Imran Khan would write a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to highlight alleged rigging in the general elections held on February 8.

“IMF, European Union, and other organisations have their charter that says these organisations will work in a country where there is good governance. For good governance, a country needs to have democracy that requires free and fair elections,” Ali Zafar said while speaking to media outside Adiala Jail.

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He alleged that “people’s mandate” was robbed and those who were losing by the night of February 8 were declared winners the next day. “Democracy cannot run with this fake mandate.”

“No organisation can give loan to a country where there is rigging in elections,” Ali Zafar added.

Through the letter, Zafar said PTI would demand an independent audit team to investigate the matter of alleged poll rigging first and then give loan to the country. “Otherwise, any loan to the government that doesn’t have people’s mandate will not be in favour of Pakistan.”

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It may be noted that along with PTI other political parties such as Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) have also declared the recent elections rigged, demanding resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikander Sultan Raja.

Meanwhile, following several rounds of consultations, two major political parties – Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – on Tuesday reached an agreement to form a coalition government in the Centre.

As per the understanding, Shehbaz Sharif will be the joint candidate for the prime minister and Asif Ali Zardari for the office of the president of Pakistan while the cabinet members will be finalised through consultations.