By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A founding member of former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has filed a complaint with the country’s election commission, accusing the party of holding “rigged and fraudulent” intra-party elections.
Akbar S. Babar, who has been at odds with the PTI leader for years, said the party had violated the election commission’s directives and disenfranchised its members from choosing their representatives.
The PTI held its internal polls on Saturday, electing Barrister Gohar Ali Khan as the new party chairman after he was nominated by Khan. The party said the polls were transparent and democratic, and dismissed Babar’s allegations as baseless.
But Babar said the party had not followed the basic rules of elections, such as announcing the names of the election commission members, the nomination process, the voter lists, the vote-counting method, and the results.
“The entire intra-party election was a mere eyewash and a vain attempt to hoodwink the election commission,” Babar said in a letter to the chief election commissioner on Tuesday. “I pray that the Election Commission of Pakistan declare the PTI Intra Party Election purportedly held on December 2, 2023, as ‘Null and Void’ and without any legal effect and that the ‘Party’ be directed to hold fresh intra-party elections as soon as possible.”
He also said the party’s election symbol of the bat should be suspended until it held transparent polls.
Babar, who was once a close aide of Khan, parted ways with him in 2011 over alleged financial irregularities in the party.
He has since filed several cases against the PTI, challenging its funding sources and internal democracy.
Babar said the PTI had betrayed its ideals and principles by holding rigged polls. “It is time that the charade of holding rigged and manipulated intra-party elections must end,” he said. “This is the only way forward for democracy to deliver and meet the challenges confronting society.”
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