MULTAN: Senior politician and former PTI president, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said Thursday that his former party’s concerns over possible rigging in the upcoming by-election in NA-149 were reflective of their fear of defeat as they have realised that the contest was one-sided in his favour.
The by-election was announced after Hashmi resigned from the National Assembly seat against the backdrop of PTI and PAT led anti-government protests in the federal capital.
After developing differences with PTI Chairman Imran Khan, Hashmi had also resigned from the party presidency and membership earlier this month. He has decided to contest the upcoming by-election as an independent candidate.
Addressing a press conference at his residence today, he claimed that neither he nor Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) vice chairman Shah Mahmood Quershi ever made allegations of rigging in the 2013 general elections.
He claimed that Qureshi had told the party’s parliamentary committee that the May 11 polls were not rigged on a ‘massive scale’.
Hashmi said in Pakistan, rigging allegations were a common phenomenon.
The former PTI president condemned Indian aggression at the LoC and said the government should take up Kashmir issue with the UN and seek its resolution as per the world body's resolutions in this regard.
Javed Hashmi said the PTI public meeting on October 10 in Multan would not benefit its candidate.
He said that he had always opposed protest through sit-ins during PTI's core committee meetings, as according to him the same was a futile exercise.
Imran Khan had announced that he had parted ways with Hashmi for opposing his decision of marching on the Prime Minister`s House last month.
In a memorable speech to the joint session of Parliament on September 2, the seasoned politician had claimed that no PTI MNA had willingly tendered resignation to the party leadership and that a system existed in the country “to engineer making and breaking of governments.”
He made the claims shortly after disclosing “a scripted plan to overthrow the government, using violent protests as a pretext.”
Hashmi had accused Imran Khan of bypassing a decision of the PTI’s core committee not to join Dr Tahirul Qadri’s march on Prime Minister’s House after receiving a message from ‘somewhere’.
