Pakistan election subject to ‘pre-poll rigging’

Jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan's party is being targeted by "systematic dismemberment" and "pre-poll rigging", a rights watchdog said yesterday, casting doubt on fairness of upcoming elections. Nomination papers for Khan and majority of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party candidates have been rejected by electoral commission, shutting them out of February 8 ballot. "The nature of the rejections seems systematic," Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) official Farhatullah Babar told AFP. "The way scores of nomination papers were rejected is brazen and the reasons given for the rejections were very flimsy," he said, adding there was "no room for doubt that pre-poll rigging is taking place". Khan, 71, has been in prison since August and is facing trial in a slew of cases he says have been orchestrated to prevent him from contesting election as the figurehead of his party. The Electoral Commission rejected his nomination because he had been disqualified from holding office over a graft conviction. But the HRCP said it had documented "harassment" of other PTI candidates attempting to put their names down for the poll. "After the election takes place there may be a lack of acceptance regarding its fairness" and the new government may not be recognised as "legitimate" by the public, Babar warned.