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.
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A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
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ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
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Key features of new policy
Pupils to learn coding and other vocational skills from Grade 6
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Three ways to boost your credit score
Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:
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