ISLAMABAD: PTI founding chairman and former Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan will write to the IMF urging it to call for an independent audit of the Feb 8 general elections before it continues talks with Islamabad, PTI leader Senator Ali Zafar disclosed on Thursday.
The PTI has also decided to hold intra-party elections on March 3, with over six million party members allowed to cast their votes physically in five major cities.
Speaking to the media in Rawalpindi outside Adiala Jail, where the former premier is imprisoned, Mr Zafar said: “I want to give important information which Mr Khan said. A letter will be issued from him to the International Monetary Fund.”
He said the IMF, the European Union and other organisations had a charter that stated that good governance was needed for working in the country or giving a loan.
“The most important condition for good governance is democracy,” he said, adding that the people’s mandate was stolen “in the darkness of the night” during the Feb 8 polls.
He said that if elections were not free and fair, any organisation would avoid giving a “loan” to such a country. “Because that loan will further burden the people,” he said.
He said the PTI wanted an audit of the election results and that condition would be put in front of the IMF.
Pakistan averted default last summer thanks to a short-term IMF bailout, but the programme expires in April and a new government will have to negotiate a long-term arrangement to keep the economy stable.
The IMF met with political parties last year to seek assurances of their support for key objectives and policies under the bailout programme.
Intra-party polls
The PTI has also decided to hold intra-party elections on March 3, with Imran Khan nominating Mr Zafar as the candidate for PTI chairman.
The party earlier conducted its elections in Peshawar in December, in which all party representatives, including chairman Barrister Gohar Khan, were elected unopposed.
However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) rejected the elections, a decision later upheld by the Supreme Court. As a result, the party was deprived of its election symbol, ‘bat’, and had to contest general elections through independent candidates.
The PTI again decided to hold intra-party elections on Feb 5, three days before general elections, but then withdrew the decision.
