JHANG: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday lamented that his efforts to introduce electronic voting machines (EVMs) to ensure transparent polls in Pakistan were scuttled by “powerful quarters”, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), and the major political parties who allegedly endorsed rigging.
“When I was in government, I tried really hard for 2.5 years to introduce EVMs for free and fair polls in Pakistan… [which] would have allowed us to organize transparent elections,” Imran Khan said while addressing a political gathering in Jhang in connection with by-polls on July 17.The two political families — Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz — ruling Pakistan for the past 35 years opposed these reforms to save their “fake votes”, he claimed. Mr Khan alleged that ECP head Sikandar Sultan Raja also joined hands with these parties against the EVMs even though it was the “job of the ECP to ensure fair polls”. “And those people who have been in power in this country for quite some time… those who influence the results of election whenever they want to, they also opposed these voting machines,” the former prime minister alleged without naming anyone.
Ex-PM says will defeat turncoat-umpire nexus despite all odds
Taking a dig at the CEC, Mr. Khan said the election commissioner should have resigned after the “massively rigged local government elections” in Sindh.. S: DN
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
