ISLAMABAD: Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. Chairman, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has defended the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and said former premier Imran Khan was exerting pressure on the Election Commission of Pakistan to influence the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) foreign funding case.
He praised CEC Sikander Sultan Raja for withstanding the pressure of the former government and improving the standing of the ECP.
The PPP chairman’s comments came in the wake of the PTI announcing protests outside the offices of the ECP throughout the country on Tuesday (today) against the CEC over his allegedly biased behavior.
In a statement Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said they supported all institutions in their effort to transition from controversial to constitutional roles. “Imran Khan’s politics now is to target all institutions with his ‘Mujay kyun nahi bachaya’ campaign. His politics is now based on lies and propaganda,” he said.
The PPP chairman claimed people knew that the only reason Imran Khan was targeting the ECP was that the CEC, who had been selected by the PTI itself, had refused to turn the commission into the former ruling party’s Tiger Force.
Raja has stood with his institution and the Constitution, and if this continued then there were hopes of seeing an empowered ECP in the future, Bilawal said in the statement.
He also chastised Imran Khan for giving a protest call at ECP offices, saying it was a blatant pressure tactic to further “bully, blackmail and pressure” the institution into not releasing the “damning” decision in the PTI’s foreign funding case. “All such efforts will fail. Truth will prevail, Insha’Allah,” he added.
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