ISLAMABAD: A day after former prime minister Imran Khan called for his resignation over charges of bias, the chief election commissioner (CEC) said he had no intention of stepping down and would continue to work in the “best interest of the country”, potentially compromising the neutrality of his fateful office.
Since his appointment to the office in January 2020, Sikandar Sultan Raja — who is the son-in-law of Saeed Mehdi, former principal secretary to Khan’s disgraced predecessor Nawaz Sharif — has been at the helm of a series of decisions against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party, the party insists.
On Saturday, in his first press conference after leaving office, Khan said his party did not trust Raja because all his decisions were against the PTI.
Responding to the presser, Raja said he had “no intention of tendering my resignation,” before adding that there was no valid reason to “think like that”.
“I am working in the best interest of the country and shall continue to do so.”
In an informal conversation with journalists last week, Khan said that Raja’s name for the office was proposed by the military establishment following a deadlock between the then government and the opposition.
Before Khan, Azam Swati, a senior PTI leader, too had suggested Khan’s government had to swallow a “bitter pill” on Raja’s appointment.
In his last week’s conversation with journalists, the former prime minister had also said the PTI would file a reference against Raja as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had displayed “incompetence” by not completing the delimitation of constituencies on time thereby delaying early elections.
