RAWALPINDI: Liaquat Ali Chattha, Commissioner Rawalpindi Division, has been taken to CPO here Saturday (17th Feb) for admitting that he had rigged the 8th Feb elections.
Earlier, while talking to the Media here at Cricket Stadium on Saturday, Chatta informed that he had resigned from his post in protest against rigging in 8th Feb 2024 elections. Liaquat Ali Chattha, told that before Namaz-e-Fajr he contemplated committing suicide for rigging results of 13 MNAs (under pressure) in the 8th Feb 2024 elections, but later deemed it fit to expose the whole story before the nation.
Taking responsibility of the irregularities Liaquat Ali Chattha said that he surrendered himself before the Police and wanted to be hanged along with Chief Election Commissioner and others for the crime committed against the people of Rawalpindi Division: “We converted independent candidates winning by 70,000 votes into losers,” he admitted. He said that he accepted all the responsibility and he should be hanged. Chattha said he could not participate in the crime that could destroy Pakistan.
Commissioner Rawalpindi Division said that not only he was under pressure but those ROs performing the election duties too were committing the crime of rigging with tears in their eyes. Claiming that his forefathers had fought against the colonists, Liaquat Ali Chattha said he did not want to see the 1971 tragedy repeating itself. He asked the entire bureaucracy to abstain from doing wrong for the politicians: “Who have gotten their achkan (traditional attires) made and are ready to become ministers.”
Chattha said he apologize to the returning officer (RO) under him. He told that when he asked him to commit the crime, he cried, and said he did not want to do that. Accusing CEC and CJP Commissioner Rawalpindi Division Liaquat Ali Chattha said that CEC and CJP were involved in the poll fraud: “We made the independent candidates lose by giving losing candidates a lead of 70,000 by putting fake stamps”.
However, the Commissioner, giving a clean chit to Army, held that military establishment was not involved in any rigging and discharged its duties honestly!
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CJP Qazi Faez Isa, terming the statement of Commissioner Rawalpindi Liaquat Ali Chattha as baseless, held that any body can blame other of theft or murder: “If you have the right to accuse then you should fulfill the responsibility of providing evidence too.”
Meanwhile, the SCP has stated that instead of taking Suo Moto notice, the matter will be taken care of along with the case already being heard.
ECP too rejected the statement of Commissioner Rawalpindi Liaquat Ali Chattha in which he had accused the Commission and the Chief Election Commissioner of rigging the 8th Feb Polls. and stated: “Neither the ECP nor any of its officials instructed the Rawalpindi commissioner to change election results under his jurisdiction.”
Maintaining that Commissioners of any division did not have a direct role in conducting elections; they are neither District Returning Officers (DROs), Returning Officers (ROs), nor Presiding Officers (POs), ECP held that it would soon conduct a comprehensive inquiry to confirm the facts.
Supreme Court Bar Association too condemned the statement of the Rawalpindi Commissioner and called it an attempt to malign the SCP and CJP.
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CM Punjab, Mohsin Naqvi, while taking notice of the Commissioner’s statement, ordered an independent probe to decipher the enigma.
Meanwhile, Amir Mir, Caretaker Information Minister of Punjab, rejecting the claims of Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha, insinuated that: i) No normal person could speak of committing suicide; and ii)since he was retiring after three weeks (on 13th day of March, 2024) he was trying to kick start his political career post retirement.
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PML-N’s Rebuttal: Taking to the Twitter PML-N claimed that Commissioner Rawalpindi Liaquat Ali Chatta was a cousin of a PTI MNA Ahmed Chatta, worked in collision with Bahria Town-famed Malik Riaz and was the key figure in the Ring Road Scandal.
PML-N had posted a list of the 13 candidates who, according to the Commissioner Rawalpindi were winning with a margin of 70,000 votes, and held that nobody happened to have that number of votes.
Malik Riaz of Bahria Town, rejecting the insinuations that Commissioner Rawalpindi had business terms with him, said that he did not know Liaquat Ali Chattha and never had any social or commercial relationship with him. Malik Riaz said that he was willing to defend his stance in front of any forum investigating the matter.
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