Jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday slammed the powerful establishment and his political opponents by terming the country’s election process as the ‘Mother of All Rigging’ and demanded that the people’s mandate that was “stolen” from his party must be returned.
Speaking to reporters outside the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi after meeting her brother Imran Khan, Aleema conveyed his message, saying Imran has called for an immediate stop to pre-poll and post-poll rigging and that he wants that the mandate of the people must be respected to “salvage the country’s reputation internationally.”
The 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician and founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has been lodged in Adiala Jail since last year following his conviction in corruption cases.
Independent candidates – a majority backed by the PTI – won 93 National Assembly seats in the election. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif led the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and won 75 seats, while the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) came third with 54 seats. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P), with its 17 seats, has agreed to support the potential PML-N-PPP alliance, but multiple rounds of talks have not yielded any result.
To form a government, a party must win 133 seats out of 265 contested seats in the 266-member National Assembly.
Soon after the meeting, the party posted a 5:49-minute video where Aleema is seen addressing the reporters from its official X handle.
Narrating what she called her brother’s message, Aleema mentioned four pointers.
“‘Mother of All U-turns’, which means giving respect to boot rather than vote and ‘Mother of All Selection’ where cases were removed from against alleged criminals’ and lodged on Imran’s head,” she said, in an apparent reference to Nawaz Sharif being given a clean chit even after conviction in some corruption cases.
But Imran’s main point was the pre-poll, during-poll and post-poll rigging, she said.
“‘Mother of All Rigging’ before the polls were when they ended the party, banned all candidates, snatched our (cricket) bat symbol and banned rallies, etc while all others were allowed this in pre-poll rigging” and “‘Mother of All Rigging’ on election day when there was no respect for voters, you suspend the internet, polling stations are rigged and voters are insulted,” she said.
“‘Mother of All Rigging’ post-poll started on the night of the voting itself, considering that people have insulted you, used their vote as weapons against you, what you do? You stopped showing results, suspended the internet and started post-poll rigging by invalidating the Form-45.”
Imran Khan’s message is clear. “People’s mandate that was stolen from us must be returned,” she said.
