Member of the Election Commission Justice (retd) Riaz Kayani on Monday termed rigging allegations by ex-ECP additional secretary Afzal Khan as baseless, Dunya News reported.
Talking to media in Lahore, Riaz Kayani said Afzal Khan is doing this because his request to be promoted to Grade 22 was turned down. He wanted to have two promotions in one year.
Questioning the authenticity of rigging claims, he said that Afzal Khan retired in May last year but never talked about all this till now, why have accusations surfaced out of nowhere after fourteen months.
Riaz Kayani said his appointment was made in accordance with the laid down rules and regulations and he took all the decisions in consultation with other members of the election commission. No such action was taken that could malign image of the institution.
He said the Election Commission is being maligned under a well planned conspiracy. Afzal Khan’s interview is pre-planned and fixed, he added.
He further said that ECP transferred Mehboob Anwar from Karachi to Lahore because elections in Punjab are always very tough to handle.
Earlier on Sunday, ex-ECP additional secretary claimed that 2013 general election were massively rigged. He said Justice (retd) Riaz Kayani has 90% role in undermining the authenticity of the polls while former chief justices of the Supreme Court Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Tassaduq Husain Jillani were also responsible for ‘stealing the mandate of people’.
Khan agreed with the allegations levelled by PTI chief Imran Khan and said that there should be an investigation and the responsible persons should be tried and punished.
The allegations were levelled at a time when Imran Khan s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Tahirul Qadri s Pakistani Awami Tehreek are protesting outside the Parliament House in a bid to seek Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif s resignation.
Khan accuses Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of rigging last year s election that he won by a landslide. Qadri says Sharif is corrupt.
PM Nawaz s election win marked the first democratic transfer of power in history of the coup-prone country. He has refused to resign.