LAHORE: The PML-N has challenged the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) to come up with constituency-wise rigging data if it claims to have evidence to the effect.

“Can Imran Khan make public the rigging margin in each constituency if he claims to have evidence of the vote-manipulation?” PML-N media coordinator Muhammad Mehdi challenged the cricketer-turned-politician and chief of the PTI.

In a statement here on Sunday, the PML-N leader also asked the PTI chief to reveal the players behind the election ‘engineering’ for both the election commission and the caretaker set-up had the seal and backing of the PTI.

Giving constituency-wise data of the defeated PTI-backed candidates, Mr Mehdi said the party had lost on six National Assembly seats with a margin of more than 100,000 votes, and eight seats with a difference of over 90,000 ballots. Similarly, he said the PTI had lost 22 seats by 60,000 votes and 12 by 50,000 votes while in 80 constituencies sureties of its candidates were confiscated for bagging even less votes than the minimum standard set by the election commission.

Mr Mehdi claimed that only on three National Assembly seats PTI’s candidates lost with a margin of just three to seven thousand votes. He urged Mr Khan to accept ground realities like a mature politician instead of harping on the rigging slogan.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2014