Jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party has demanded the resignations of the chief election commissioner (CEC) and Chief Justice of Pakistan after a senior bureaucrat’s allegations that the top election body and judiciary were involved in the poll rigging.

Former Rawalpindi commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha on Saturday alleged that the candidates who were “losing” the elections “were made to win” in the city. He claimed that 13 candidates from Rawalpindi were forcefully declared winners.

His remarks came amidst Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party began nationwide protests against alleged rigging and stealing of its mandate in the February 8 elections.

“I am taking responsibility for all this wrongdoing and telling you that the chief election commissioner and the chief justice are also completely involved in this,” he said.

Chattha resigned from his office after “accepting responsibility” for the manipulation of poll results.

A PTI spokesperson demanded that the CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja and Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa tender their resignations following the revelations by Chattha.

He said Chattha’s admission endorsed the PTI’s stance on how the public mandate was stolen in the dark of the night, besides exposing the real characters involved in election rigging.

The spokesperson said Chattha confessed that the victory of Independent candidates leading with over 70,000 votes was converted into a defeat by putting fake stamps.

He emphasised that Chattha’s testimony supported the PTI’s stance that people had voted for PTI-affiliated Independent candidates in large numbers. However, the overwhelming PTI majority was allegedly turned into a minority overnight through
poll “fraud”.

He demanded that the electoral watchdog should promptly return the PTI’s 86 stolen seats in the National Assembly.

He also demanded that all the elements involved in stealing public mandate should be punished under the Constitution and the law.

Meanwhile, the PTI held its parliamentary committee meeting.

PTI leader Ali Muhammad Khan told reporters that the party was deprived of its symbol, and most of the leaders were in jail at the time of the elections, but people cast votes in favour of the PTI.

“Today we hear a voice from the same place (Rawalpindi) where we were deprived of our mandate. Commissioner Rawalpindi has given proof in our favour. We have been deprived of 80 seats,” he said.

He said that on Friday, he, along with Sardar Latif Khosa, had a meeting with party founder Khan, who is in jail. “Imran Khan told us that he will forgive all the personalities just like the Holy Prophet Muhammad did after Fatah Makkah. He also gave the example of Nelson Mandela and said that he would not take revenge on anyone,” Ali said.