Awami National Party (ANP) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) President Aimal Wali Khan, who lost to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in the by-election in NA-24, Charsadda Sunday, said on Monday that he had pointed out a night before the election that the KP government was conspiring to rig the election.
Admitting that elections in his constituency had always been ‘managed’, he accused the provincial government of purchasing votes of the people and stuffing the ballot boxes with ‘bogus’ votes. “I have with me the transcripts of audio calls which are a proof of how the elections were engineered,” he said, alleging that 10, 000 bogus votes were cast. Aimal announced that he would go to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for the verification of votes.
“How could a senior anchorperson say this on television at 2:00 in the afternoon that the issues between the PTI and the ‘establishment’ had been resolved, and the country’s political scenario was going to change? What was the logic behind assigning election duties to the LHVs when there are millions of teachers in KP?” he questioned.
ANP provincial president did not stop there, and even alleged that the entire state machinery was used to, what he alleged, steal the people’s mandate from the ANP. He did not even feel shy from using the ‘Pashtoon Card’ on the occasion, and said that the ethnic group was always made a ‘scapegoat’. Such things, he added, must now be stopped. Aimal vowed that he and members of his party would go ahead with their struggle. He also thanked the party members and workers for running an ‘organised and effective election campaign’.
