Peshawar: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf central information secretary Shaikh Waqas Akram on Monday raised questions about the failure of the Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) to release a report about the Feb 8, 2024, general elections in the country and wondered under what agreement with the Pakistani government, the group had refused to make the report public.

An independent news outlet, Drop Site News, has claimed that the COG had “buried its report” after finding the Feb 8 general elections to be riddled with problems.

Mr Akram told a news conference here that the report should have been formally released by the Commonwealth instead of being published by Drop Site News.

He insisted that the foreign minister and people from the Election Commission of Pakistan met with the Commonwealth’s leadership last year multiple times, while the Commonwealth’s representatives held meetings with representatives of the Pakistani government, raising questions.

The PTI leader wondered why the international organisation, which monitored elections and democratic institutions, withheld its report on the Feb 2024 elections.

“It has never happened in 70 years of the Commonwealth’s history. We’re concerned about it,” he said.

Mr Akram urged the European Union, whose observers were also present in the country during the 2024 elections, to release its report “before it’s leaked.”

He said “facts” regarding the Feb 8 polls should be published for the information of Pakistanis.

The PTI leader said a report released by FakeNews Watchdog lately noted that Pakistan faced a critical democratic crisis with the powerful elite, state institutions and the compromised political characters jointly violating the people’s mandate.

“Pakistan’s so-called democratic system is in fact an alliance of unelected elite where parliament is confined to staged debate rather than resolve the people’s issues,” he quoted the report.

Mr Akram demanded the ouster of the government for fresh elections in the country under the watch of independent observers.

He said only people’s real representatives should sit in parliament.

The PTI leader said his party would take up the issue with the EU observers and EU and Commonwealth leadership, while correspondence with foreign diplomats was also under discussion.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2025