Imran Khan’s party demands EU report on Feb 8 polls be made public

Islamabad: Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s beleaguered Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Monday demanded the European Union's report on the February 8 general elections to be made public.

PTI spokesperson Raoof Hasan, while addressing a press conference in the capital city, said the European Union (EU) report on the elections should be made public, Geo News reported.

Recalling the EU delegation’s visit to Pakistan before the February 8 general elections, Hasan said the intergovernmental body has confirmed handing over its report on the country’s polls to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). “The EU report is very sensitive and important,” he said.

The PTI spokesperson’s demand comes as the party has vociferously complained of “wide-scale rigging and election result manipulation” in the general elections claiming its mandate was “stolen”.

The 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician, who is incarcerated in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail after his conviction in various cases, had also written to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) calling on the global lender to hold an audit of the election results before approving any new loan for the cash-strapped country.

However, the demand was turned down by the Washington-based lender citing its “narrow mandate on economic issues” saying that it does not comment on domestic political developments.

Following the February 8 elections, the EU’s Lead Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Peter Stano deplored the “lack of a level playing field due to the inability of some political actors to contest the elections”.

He had also highlighted “restrictions to freedom of assembly, freedom of expression both online and offline, restrictions of access to the internet, as well as allegations of severe interference in the electoral process, including arrests of political activists”.

However, the EU wasn’t the only entity that had expressed concerns over the polls, as both the United States and the United Kingdom have expressed concerns about the “restricted” election environment followed up by allegations of irregularities and interference in the polling process.

After the formation of the new government led by Shehbaz Sharif, the noose has further been tightened up against the PTI and its leadership.

Terrorism cases have been registered against the PTI leaders and workers for holding peaceful protests against the February poll rigging.

The ex-prime minister, along with former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, was handed down a sentence of 10 years each in the cipher case in January for publishing contents of a secret cable sent by the country’s ambassador in Washington to the government in Islamabad.

The cipher case pertains to a piece of paper, purported to be a diplomatic cable—the cipher—that Khan had waved at a public rally on March 27, 2022, and naming the US, had claimed that it was ‘evidence’ of an “international conspiracy” to topple his government.

The Federal Investigation Agency filed the case against Khan and Qureshi on August 15 last year, which accused both of violating the secrecy laws while handling the cable sent by the Pakistan embassy in Washington in March 2022.

Khan and Qureshi have also been barred from politics for five years.