Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday said that Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja should resign from his post after the surfacing of audio leaks allegedly featuring conversations of key figures in the coalition government.
Addressing a gathering at the Government College University (GCU) in Lahore, Imran said the audio leaks had made it apparent that CEC Raja was a “servant of the Sharif household”.
In the audio leaks, “Nawaz is telling him (CEC) who should be disqualified and when to hold elections,” the former premier said.
The audio recordings of purported conversations of key government figures – including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz and some members of the federal cabinet – discussing governance matters privately surfaced over the weekend, prompting concerns over the security of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). PML-N leader Talal Chaudhry on Sunday had said the government was taking the leaks “very seriously”; however, he stopped short of denying the veracity of the audio tapes.
In his speech, Imran also alleged that the CEC had blocked the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) on the instructions of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.
“I kept on trying to introduce EVMs for three years … but this man, on the instructions of Nawaz and Zardari, who rely on false votes, did not allow EVMs,” he claimed.
He continued that in the coming days, there would be more “episodes” in the audio leaks saga.
“I am hearing that a [recording] will surface where Maryam will tell abba jee (Nawaz) that the election commission has said they will disqualify Imran Khan in the Toshakhana case and that there is no need to worry,” he said.
Earlier, PTI leader Chaudhry Fawad Hussain termed the slew of audio recordings a “major security lapse” and demanded a “thorough investigation” to expose those responsible.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, he lamented that phone tapping had “unfortunately become a common occurrence in Pakistan”. He said the current leaks had caused a “national security crisis” in the country.
