Islamabad: Opposition politician Imran Khan on Saturday announced that his Pakistan Tehreek e-Insaf (PTI) would stage a sit-in protest in Islamabad if four provincial members of the Election Commission do not resign.
The sit-in will be held in front of the headquarters of the Election Commission (EC) in the capital on October 4 if the members do not step down, he said while addressing a gathering in Lahore, capital of Punjab province, after a party meeting there.
PTI as well as the main opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) claim the EC members have become “controversial” as a judicial commission in July cited lapses in the conduct of 2013 general election, while rejecting allegations of organised rigging.
They are demanding resignations ahead of by-elections to be held after election tribunals de-seated two ruling party members of parliament.
Citing irregularities in the conduct of polls in 2013 in Lahore constituency and another cosnitutency in Lodhra, also in Punjab, separate election tribunals annulled the results and ordered redpoll.
Ruling party’s stalwart Sardar Ayz Sadiq, who lost his National Assembly membership and post of its Spaeaker, had defeated Imran Khan in the Lahore constituency. Khan had challenged his election.
In Ladhora, a poll tribunal annulled the 2013 election of another Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) politician to the National Assembly.
The PML-N has decided to contest the by-elections in the two constituencies and said it will challenge the tribunal verdict in the Supreme Court without seeking its suspension till its decision.
It has challenged the PTI chairman and its leader Jahangir Tareen, who had lost 2013 polls in Lodhra constituency, not to run away and contest by-elections for which the EC is yet to issue a schedule.
PTI had last year staged the longest sit-in protest in the country’s political history in Islamabad over alleged election rigging in 2013.
