Pakistan Poll Official Resigns, Accepts “Wrongdoing” In Elections

Islamabad: 

A senior Pakistani bureaucrat on Saturday alleged that the chief election commissioner and the chief justice were involved in poll rigging in the recent election as he resigned from his post, taking the “responsibility for all this wrongdoing”.

Former Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha’s remarks came amidst jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party began nationwide protests against alleged rigging and stealing of its mandate in the February 8 elections.

Speaking to reporters at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Liaquat Ali Chattha said the candidates who were “losing” the elections “were made to win”.

I am taking the responsibility for all this wrongdoing and telling you that the chief election commissioner and the chief justice are also completely involved in this,” he was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

Liaquat Ali Chattha resigned from his office after “accepting responsibility” for manipulation of poll results, it said.

Liaquat Ali Chattha said “stabbing the country in its back does not let” him sleep.

“I should be punished for the injustice I have done and others who were involved in this injustice should also be punished,” he said.

The former bureaucrat said there was “pressure” on him to the extent that he contemplated suicide but then resolved to present matters before the public.

“It is my request to the entire bureaucracy to not do anything wrong for all these politicians,” he said.