Khan claims more audio leaks of Maryam Nawaz are on the way

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan reacting to the audio leaks of Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif and other Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders including Vice-president Maryam Nawaz, has said that Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja should resign from his post.

Addressing students at Government College University in Lahore on Monday, Khan said that the audio leaks had made it clear that CEC Raja was a “Servant of the Sharif household”.

After the audio leaks, the CEC should resign if he has even an ounce of shame, said Khan. “But he doesn’t [have any shame], so we will have to make him resign,” he told the students gathered there to listen to him.

Khan also alleged that the CEC had blocked the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) on the instructions of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari.

“I kept on trying to introduce EVMs for three years […] But this man, on the instructions of Nawaz and Zardari, who rely on false votes, did not allow EVMs,” he claimed.

He continued that in the coming days, there would be more “episodes” in audio leaks saga.

“I am hearing that a [recording] will surface where Maryam will tell abba jee [Nawaz] that the election commission has said they will disqualify Imran Khan in the Toshakhana case and that there is no need to worry,” he said.

“This is the [state of the] election commission.”

Earlier today, PTI’s Fawad Chaudhry had termed the slew of audio recordings a “major security lapse” and demanded a “thorough investigation” to expose those responsible.

He said that the PM Office is unsafe from cyber attacks, adding audio files up to 340 hours were leaked but no institution was aware of it.

“We [PTI] spent a lot of money to provide the latest equipment to agencies.”

He claimed that the government is in talks with hackers and purchasing data that was put up for sale on the dark web.

“The hacker has said that the explosive audio is yet to be released,” Fawad said.

On Saturday, September 24, alleged audios of PM Shehbaz and other Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders leaked online.

In one of the audio clips, PML-N Vice-president Maryam Nawaz allegedly can be heard complaining to her uncle [PM Shehbaz] about Finance Minister Miftah Ismail.

The second clip allegedly concerns a conversation between PM Shehbaz, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Law Minister Azam Tarar, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and former National Assembly (NA) speaker Ayaz Sadiq about the resignations of PTI MNAs. The audio is said to be a recording of a cabinet meeting.

Party leaders can be allegedly heard discussing whose resignations from PTI will be accepted. Moreover, the leaders can be heard saying that the final decision will be taken by PML-N Supremo Nawaz Sharif who is in London.