Pakistan's electoral authority has ordered an inquiry after a senior bureaucrat said he helped to manipulate the results of 13 seats in the general election held on February 8.
Liaqat Ali Chattha, commissioner of the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where the country's military has its headquarters, told reporters on Saturday that candidates who were losing the elections “were made to win” and that efforts to justify the manipulated results were continuing in “an organised manner at some offices”, the Dawn newspaper reported.
There have been widespread allegations of rigging after authorities switched off the country's mobile phone network on election day and the count took more than 24 hours.
The army-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), short of a majority, has announced a partnership with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and a handful of smaller parties to form the next government.
Before stepping down from his post, Mr Chattha said he supervised rigging of votes in Rawalpindi.
We converted the losers into winners, reversing margins of 70,000 votes in 13 national assembly seats
Liaqat Ali Chattha,
commissioner of Rawalpindi
"We converted the losers into winners, reversing margins of 70,000 votes in 13 national assembly seats," he told reporters.
"For committing such a heinous crime, I will hand myself over to the police," he said, also implicating the head of the election commission and the country's senior judge.
The election commission rejected Mr Chattha's allegations, but said it would "hold an enquiry".
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a leading advocacy group, said after Mr Chattha's announcement that the "involvement of the state bureaucracy in rigging in Pakistan is beginning to be exposed".
Candidates from the PML-N and PPP claimed most of the seats in Rawalpindi, sweeping aside candidates loyal to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, who was ineligible to contest the election after a spate of recent convictions.
Mr Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was effectively barred from fielding candidates in the election, but independents backed by the former prime minister together won more seats than any of the parties.
A small number of PTI supporters took to the streets in urban centres on Saturday after the party called for nationwide protests against the alleged rigging, with the largest gathering of about 4,000 people in its stronghold northern city of Peshawar.
In the central city of Lahore, police detained senior party member Salman Akram Raja and about a dozen supporters after surrounding the party headquarters but said they were all released by late afternoon.
Senior PTI official Ali Muhammad Khan said after the protests that Mr Chattha's statement proved his party was cheated.
"We must be returned our mandate," he told reporters in Islamabad.
By Saturday night, social media platform X, formerly Twitter, was disrupted across Pakistan, according to watchdog NetBlocks.
With reporting from agencies.
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates, Etihad and Swiss fly direct from the UAE to Zurich from Dh2,855 return, including taxes.
The chalet
Chalet N is currently open in winter only, between now and April 21. During the ski season, starting on December 11, a week’s rental costs from €210,000 (Dh898,431) per week for the whole property, which has 22 beds in total, across six suites, three double rooms and a children’s suite. The price includes all scheduled meals, a week’s ski pass, Wi-Fi, parking, transfers between Munich, Innsbruck or Zurich airports and one 50-minute massage per person. Private ski lessons cost from €360 (Dh1,541) per day. Halal food is available on request.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Full Party in the Park line-up
2pm – Andreah
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5.30pm – Lighthouse Family
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8pm – Richard Ashcroft
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COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
Volvo ES90 Specs
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Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
The years Ramadan fell in May
Scoreline
Saudi Arabia 1-0 Japan
Saudi Arabia Al Muwallad 63’
What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
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Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
MATCH INFO
Barcelona 2
Suarez (10'), Messi (52')
Real Madrid 2
Ronaldo (14'), Bale (72')
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Profile
Name: Carzaty
Founders: Marwan Chaar and Hassan Jaffar
Launched: 2017
Employees: 22
Based: Dubai and Muscat
Sector: Automobile retail
Funding to date: $5.5 million
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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MATCH INFO
England 241-3 (20 ovs)
Malan 130 no, Morgan 91
New Zealand 165 all out (16.5ovs)
Southee 39, Parkinson 4-47
England win by 76 runs
Series level at 2-2
What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
- Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
