Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan met Acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Nasirul Mulk here on Friday and informed the ECP about preparation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for holding local bodies' elections. Matter related to alleged rigging in the last general elections also came under discussion.
The ECP's meeting with Imran Khan was postponed twice. The acting ECP refused to give meeting date to Imran Khan on March 13, a day after the latter had not turned up for a scheduled meeting. Imran Khan had an appointment with the acting CEC on March 12, but he could not meet the acting CFC because he had to receive Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at his Bani Gala residence.
After Friday's meeting, Imran Khan talked to media outside the ECP office and termed the meeting 'very productive'. "We are ready to hold local bodies' elections in KP on April 30 and requested the ECP to introduce biometric system in the polls there," Khan said.
During his meeting with the acting CEC, Khan reiterated his demand for introduction of biometric system in the upcoming local government elections in KP and discussed his party's petitions pending before election tribunals.
It has been decided in January this year that the KP government, the National Database Registration Authority and the ECP would examine the feasibility of the proposal, but they could not reach any conclusion. Nadra did not have the record pf fingerprints of 1.2 million voters in KP so it would be difficult to introduce the system in the absence of complete database with biometrics.
Imran Khan said criminal proceedings should be initiated against presiding and returning officers of those polling stations where voters' number was 1,500 but 8,000 votes were polled. He criticised the rigging in general elections, adding: "Fair elections cannot be held until those who rigged elections are punished." He proposed that proceeding should be initiated against them under Article 6 of the Constitution as they violated the fundamental rights of the voters. Certain presiding and returning officers were responsible to help casting 50,000 fake votes with fake thumb impressions at a single polling station. "We can ensure free and fair elections unless we give exemplary punishment to those who rigged the general elections," he said.
Responding to another question, Imran said that those who want to blackmail him did not actually know him. However, he said it was their democratic right to show their grievances. "I shall hold a meeting with the forward block but if they think they can blackmail me to get ministries they are badly mistaken," Imran Khan stated. Replying to another question regarding delimitation of constituencies in Sindh and Punjab, he said opposition parties in Sindh and Punjab were showing distrust regarding delimitation in their respective provinces as it was done with malafide intention.
He said it was unprecedented that the party who won the election was also alleging rigging in the elections. "We handed over a white paper of 2,100 pages written on the rigging in the 2013 general elections and misuse of police and 'patwaris' in the campaign for by-elections by two major political parties," he added.
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