Islamabad, Feb 22 (IANS) Withdrawing all his allegations related to rigging in the February 8 general elections in Pakistan, former Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha said he was “extremely ashamed, embarrassed”, and claimed that he made the move in coordination with a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader, a media report said.
“I take full responsibility for my actions and surrender myself before the authorities for any kind of legal action,” Chattha said in a statement to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Geo News reported.
In a dramatic development last Saturday, Chattha had tendered his resignation, which he said was out of “guilty conscience” for abetting large-scale electoral rigging in the garrison city, further raising the political mercury in the country.
The Commissioner, in the rare press conference, had taken responsibility for the “rigging” that he claimed took place in Rawalpindi Division.
“We converted the losers into winners with 50,000 votes margin,” he had stated.
In response to his allegations, the PTI, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), and other political parties — most of whom had already rejected the election results — demanded an investigation into the matter.
In the same presser, Chattha had also accused Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa of facilitating the rigging. Responding to his allegations, CJP Isa demanded the former commissioner to show evidence to back his allegations against him, Geo News reported.
However, retracting his allegations, Chattha revealed that all of this was done in coordination with the Imran Khan-founded PTI, which had also offered “lucrative positions for me in future”, Geo News reported.
