LAHORE: Refuting the allegations made a day earlier by former additional secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Muhammad Afzal Khan that the May 2013 elections were rigged, a member of the ECP Justice (retd) Riaz Ahmed Kiani said Monday that Khan’s accusations against the government were part of a "pre-planned agenda", DawnNews reported.

Also read: People's mandate stolen in 2013 elections, says ex-ECP additional secretary

Addressing a press conference in Lahore, the ECP member from Punjab Kiani said that there was a major conspiracy behind Khan's accusations who had also alleged on Sunday that the people's mandate was ‘stolen’ due to the rigging. He said Khan's interview was a 'fixed match'.

Kiani said that he and other members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) were against extension of contracts and claimed that Afzal had started levelling allegations when he was upset upon not receiving an extension on his contract.

“Why did Afzal Khan suddenly remember that elections were rigged after a lapse of 14 months,” he questioned, while terming the former ECP's secretary's allegations as blatant lies.

Kiani also said that somebody was providing false information to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan regarding him. He said Imran had falsely claimed and that he had never been a lawyer for Ittefaq Foundries.

Justice Kiani said that his appointment had been made as per the Constitution and that he was proud of the fact that he could represent Punjab.

Tribunal judge

Meanwhile, election tribunal judge Kazim Malik on Monday said that Khan’s allegations, which he said had been leveled at all tribunals, were “a pack of lies”.

Malik said that, contrary to Khan’s claims, no cases were delayed in his tribunal except for those in which transfer applications had been filed by the candidates.

He said that his tribunal had also de-seated a few Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) lawmakers, and said there was no malpractice in his tribunal.

“All the cases are part of public record, and re-election has also been held on several cases,” he said.

Afzal Khan, who also goes by the name of Afzal Qadhafi, appeared on the ARY News show ‘Khara Such’, hosted by Mubasher Lucman and alleged that the general elections were ‘massively rigged’ and pointed the finger squarely at former chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and retd Justice Kiani.

Khan was the additional secretary at the ECP from 2012 until his retirement just after the elections in May last year. He began his career as a journalist with the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan in 1979 and served there until 1996. He then joined the ECP as director of Public Relations, where he worked until 2003.

He was appointed the NWFP information secretary the next year, but returned to the ECP as the provincial election commissioner for the same province from July 2008 to March 2010. In April 2010, he took charge as a joint secretary at ECP headquarters in Islamabad.

The post was re-designated in January 2012 and Mr Afzal was made a director general, a position he retained until his elevation to his penultimate post. It is not clear what made him keep quiet for over 14 months since his retirement.