Claim of '35 punctures' was political statement: Imran Khan

By
AFP
|
Claim of '35 punctures' was political statement: Imran Khan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said that his claim of '35 punctures', which referred to alleged electoral rigging in 35 constituencies of Punjab, was nothing more than a political statement.

Imran Khan said this in his exclusive interview in Hamid Mir’s program ‘Capital Talk’ on Wednesday.

Mir asked Khan as to why he shied away from bringing up the issue of '35 punctures' before the judicial commission probing the rigging allegations.

To which Khan replied that Brigadier (Retd) Samson Simon heard about the '35 punctures' from Agha Murtaza Poya and that a message of '35 punctures' was shared on social media in a tweet.

“Political statement means that Brigadier Samson told us, he heard it from Agha Murtaza Poya, and so it was tweeted and became the '35 punctures',” he said.



Khan, however, claimed that his party had still succeeded in proving that organised rigging was carried out in the general elections of 2013.

He said that his party would accept whatever decision comes from the judicial commission.

The PTI chairman maintained that additional ballot papers were printed in 20 percent of constituencies in Punjab. He said that more than 5 percent additional ballots were printed in 149 constituencies.

“Punjab province led in printing of additional ballot papers,” Khan reiterated his claim, adding that then-Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ibrahim was not aware of any of these irregularities.

He said his party was extending its all-out support to the judicial commission to ascertain whether or not rigging took place in the 2013 polls.