Claims of ‘interference or fraud’ in Pak general elections must be fully investigated: US

Washington/Islamabad: The US has said that allegations of “interference or fraud” in Pakistan's recent elections must be fully and transparently investigated according to the country’s laws and procedures.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller made the remarks on Tuesday while responding to a question about rigging allegations made by former Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaqat Ali Chattha.

On February 17, the senior Pakistani bureaucrat alleged that the chief election commissioner and the chief justice were involved in “poll-rigging” in the February 8 elections and resigned from his post, taking the "responsibility for all this wrongdoing".

Chattha said the candidates who were “losing” the elections “were made to win”. “I am taking the responsibility for all this wrongdoing and telling you that the chief election commissioner and the chief justice are also completely involved in this,” he was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

To another question about respecting the mandate won by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party emerging as the largest group in Parliament, Miller said, “I don’t want to get into an internal Pakistani matter, which I very much believe that the formation of a new government is.” Miller said it is a matter he would leave to Pakistan but “any claims of interference or allegations of irregularities, we want to see those fully investigated”.

On the suspension of social media platform X in the cash-strapped country, Miller said the US wanted to see full internet freedom around the world, including the availability of platforms that people use to communicate with each other.

Responding to Chattha’s claims, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), in a press statement, “strongly rejected the allegations”.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Pakistan’s Supreme Court dismissed as a “publicity stunt” a petition seeking new elections over alleged irregularities in the February 8 polls.

On Tuesday night, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Peoples Party announced that they have agreed on a power-sharing deal to form a new coalition government after intense negotiations following a fractured poll verdict.

At a joint news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari announced that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif, 72, will assume the role of the prime minister once again. Similarly, PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, 68, will be the joint candidate for the president’s office.