The opposition parties have raised questions about the transparency of the 2018 general elections while responding to a report that former chief justice Saqib Nisar had ordered a high court judge not to release Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam from jail before the 2018 general elections.
Senior PML-N leader Khawja Asif, while addressing the National Assembly today, said that Saqib Nisar’s malicious conduct had led to the formation of an incompetent assembly that had given the country nothing but inflation and bad governance. He added that questions had been raised on the role of all institutions, saying that the judiciary appeared to have been compromised at the highest level.
Asif said that the current assembly had been ignored by the ruling party for the past three years precisely because it had come about as a result of a rigged election. He added that Imran Khan had leveled allegations of rigging in 35 constituencies in the 2013 election, but this time around the entire election was surrounded with suspicion.
Responding to Asif’s speech, the fire-brand Minister for Communication & Postal Services Murad Saeed said that the PML-N always resorted to cheap tactics of defaming the judiciary and the military when decisions were not going in their favour. He challenged Nawaz Sharif to return to the country if he was a true patriot.
Later, Federal Minister for Planning and Development, Asad Umar said that the next general election would be conducted through Electronic Voting Machines (EVM’s) to eliminate instances of rigging.
