Imran alleges rigging; demands recounting

Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday alleged rigging in the elections and demanded recounting of votes on 25 seats of National Assembly in Punjab, a private news channel reported. “Whatever result comes after the recounting will be acceptable to us,” Imran Khan said in a statement. The PTI chief said that being a sportsman, he would accept any outcome. He added that his party’s leadership would hold a press conference in connection with the alleged rigging in the elections. PTI leader Javed Hashmi said that his party would issue a white paper on rigging in elections across the country after gathering evidences. Addressing a press conference at Jinnah House in Sialkot, he said that the PTI would not allow anyone to hijack people’s mandate. Meanwhile, PTI Vice Chairman Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi expressed concern over delay in the announcement of election result in NA-230, and alleged that rigging was being done in the constituency. Addressing a press conference, he disclosed that he was leading with margin of 16,000 votes in 175 polling stations and alleged that rigging was carried out at 38 polling stations and the result of polling stations was delayed deliberately. He claimed that armed men of the PPP attacked different polling stations, resorted to firing, picked up ballot boxes and also burnt ballot papers. Qureshi alleged that police were also supporting his rival candidates in the constituency.