MIANWALI, Oct 16: PTI chairman Imran Khan has accused the government of ‘post-election rigging’, saying that it is employing all tactics to bring the PML-Q to power.
Speaking to media personnel at the district press club here late Tuesday night, Mr Khan alleged that Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool’s visit to Mianwali a few days before the elections was meant to favour the King’s party. The district government had stopped issuing national identity cards to young people in NA-71, he further alleged.
Mr Khan said the district government had been involved in the campaign of his rival candidate, Obaidullah Shadikhel, who secured 60,000 votes.
The government beat all pre-poll rigging records, as Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had bagged more than 100,000 votes in Bhakkar despite the fact that he never visited the place, Mr Khan said and added, voters’ turnout was a record 78 per cent there.
He said the local government system was the best way to solving problems of the common man, but immense powers and huge funds had corrupted the Nazimeen. He demanded formation of an independent audit commission to look after their accounts.
He also promised publication of a white paper about the pre-poll rigging.
Mr Khan told a questioner that he was prepared to sit with the opposition and raise his voice against social injustice and corruption.
He assured the audience that he had the capability to launch development projects in his constituency on his own and promised that three major projects would be launched in the private sector very soon. He also promised to supply potable water to the people living in Salt Range villages including Toba Mangal and Chapri through a pipeline that would cost hardly a few million rupees.
Earlier, Inamullah Khan of PML-N, cousin of Mr Khan and a defeated candidate for NA-72, alleged that district education officers had been involved in the election campaign of district Nazim Humair Hayat Rokhri’s father Gul Hameed Rokhri. These officers employed all tactics to harass the 10,000 teachers in the district and get their votes, he added. He also accused some other LG officers of resorting to pre-poll rigging in favour of Mr Rokhri.