ISLAMABAD: The flamboyant former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan Friday expressed reservations that neither the coalition regime nor the “establishment” wants free, fair, and transparent elections.

“I am afraid neither the PDM parties, who have perfected the art of rigging over the years want free and fair elections, nor does our Establishment,” he tweeted.

While sharing a report by a local media, he said that the findings of the Pattan report made it “obvious” why the incumbent regime and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) opposed the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the upcoming polls.

In its report, Pattan – a not-for-profit organisation – claims that the use of EVM may eliminate 130 out of 163 poll rigging means in the country.

Khan has also previously said the status quo was against the EVMs to manipulate elections through getting opposition votes rejected.

The tweets by the PTI leader came despite the ECP’s statements earlier in the day that declared the PTI chief’s allegations against its chief election commissioner (CEC) “baseless”.

President Dr Arif Alvi had returned, without his approval, a bill which sought to reverse the changes made in the election laws by the previous PTI government on the use of the EVMs and i-voting for overseas Pakistanis, terming the proposed legislation as regressive.

However, the National Assembly had passed the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022 – removing the use of the EVMs and effectively disallowing overseas Pakistanis from voting in the next general polls.

The bill was passed with a majority vote, with only MNAs belonging to the GDA opposing it.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022