Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Saturday said that prime minister’s office is the headquarters of rigging in elections, and asked the government to answer the reservations of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over electronic voting machines.
Talking to reporters along with other party leaders in the federal capital, Marriyum Aurangzeb said that her party strongly condemns threats of setting the election commission to fire. She alleged that government introduced the idea of electronic voting machines to rig the elections. “The ECP has been accused of taking bribes and federal ministers have attacked and humiliated the election commission. Under Article 218 of constitution, it is responsibility of the ECP to conduct free and fair elections,” she added.
The PML-N leader said that ECP has raised three questions on the EVMs. She stressed that electoral reforms cannot be introduced by intimidating others. She said EVMs and electoral reforms are a blatant attack on the constitution. A day after Railways Minister Azam Khan Swati passed scathing remarks against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique urged the relevant institutions and civil society to take notice of the minister’s ‘threats’ and take action on the matter.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore, the PML-N leader said while referring to Swati’s remarks, “They need to hold their tongue.” He said it was perhaps for the first time in history that “the ECP has taken a stand on principles,” and in that case, it was the collective responsibility of the civil society, lawyers and political parties to take notice of the threats made against the ECP and take measures to defend and protect the country’s institutions. “If the government is making such threats, it is the responsibility of Pakistan’s civil society and political parties to fulfil their responsibility and their voice [against such verbal attacks],” he reiterated.
