Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf demanded on Friday the by-elections and Local Government polls under supervision of Rangers. The Punjab Chapter of the party announced to hold the first campaign rally on the Defence Day on September 6. In a press conference held at the chairman secretariat in Lahore, party organiser Chauhdry Sarwar said the ruling party released funds worth of Rs 7.25 billion ahead of the Local Government polls to turn results in their favour.
He said everybody, including Pakistan Peoples' Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Tahir-ul-Qadri, were demanding resignation of members of the Election Commission. He alleged that the ruling party had trained its workers how to rig the elections while PTI was training its youth to stop the rigging, he stated. He was accompanied by Opposition Leader of Punjab Assembly Mian Mahmoodur Rashid, Chairman's Advisor Ijaz Ahmad Chauhdry, Abdul Aleem Khan, Shoaib Siddiqui and Yasmeen Rashid.
He said PTI fought a sincere war against rigging and electoral malpractices, adding it was Chairman Imran Khan's struggle that exposed worst rigging in Lahore and Lodhran constituencies. He said the choice of Abdul Aleem Khan and Shoaib Siddiqui as candidates for Lahore's by-elections was a unanimous decision and every worker and leader of the party had put his or her weight behind those candidates. He drew attention of all relevant stakeholders towards the use of development funds by Punjab government near the elections and stated that PTI would protest against such malpractices at every forum. He said PML-N government was issuing funds to its members of the assembly and even those who lost elections to steal the votes. Those irregularities and violation of code of conduct was pointed out several times by PTI but ECP was avoiding taking any action against it, he said.
He repeated the party's reservations against ECP members and said the party would protest if they did not resign by October 4. But, he said, PTI would not leave the field open for ruling party in any case and would contest all the elections. He said PTI's struggle was for a Pakistan which the great founders Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Muhammad Iqbal envisaged. He called the upcoming by-elections a contest not between the candidates but between Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif.
Opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mahmood-ur-Rasheed announced to expose the pre-poll rigging by Punjab government at every forum including before ECP. He said the release of more than seven billion rupees was blatant disregard of the electoral code of conduct and against the spirit of free and fair elections. He said the matter would be raised at the floor of the Punjab Assembly as well. Deputy Organiser Omar Sarfraz Cheema, PTI MPA Mian Aslam Iqbal, PTI Central Leader Hamid Khan Advocate, Head of Women Wing PTI Punjab Salooni Bukhari and PTI Punjab's Spokesperson Jamshed Iqbal Cheema were also.
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