Islamabad: As the political uncertainty about who will form the government in the light of February 8 general election continues, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday announced that it would form the opposition in the Centre and Punjab as per party founder Imran Khan’s directives.

PTI leader Barrister Saif, while speaking to journalists after a meeting with Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) in Islamabad, said that PTI has decided to sit on the opposition benches in the National Assembly and Punjab Assembly.

“Many politicians face the allegations that they have power lust but we have decided to sit in the opposition in the Centre and Punjab, despite the fact that if we had got the seats according to the votes we received, we would have been forming the government in the Centre,” he said.

Saif added that the Form-45s were the evidence that the PTI-backed candidates had won but the results were changed in the Form-47s . He said that party was making contacts with political parties on Khan’s orders, and that is why a delegation led by Asad Qaiser visited the QWP secretariat.

Saif said that the 2024 polls, which he said were “rigged”, created political unrest in the country and resulted in wide scale complaints from the political parties and those “who had the right” and who had received got the votes of people.

“Peoples votes were tempered with,” he asserted.  Saif said that some people would be cheering that they have got to form the government, but this celebration would be short-lived.

“If we see this in the long term, this is a huge problem for the nation, the country and the parliamentary democracy in Pakistan because the coming generations have to bear the brunt of such incidents,” the lawyer-turned politician said while referring to the alleged rigging in polls.  He said that PTI wants “harmony and an environment of reconciliation” in the country.

Sharing the details about the meeting with QWP, Saif said that the PTI requested the party leaders to join it on the agenda to protest the alleged polls rigging.

At this, QWP leader Sikandar Sherpao told PTI that they will announce their course of action after sharing PTI’s proposal with the party’s committee.

Pakistan staged the biggest election of its history on February 8, which was extraordinary in various aspects. However, the outcome of the polls did not turn out to be as expected by the political actors as none of them got a simple majority.

While the PTI-affiliated independent candidates dominated the election results, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) claimed to have enough numbers to form the government as some independents joined the Nawaz Sharif-led party post-polls.

However, maintaining its stance of having the majority, the PTI also alleges that the polls were “not free and fair” and plans to stage countrywide peaceful protests against the alleged rigging.

Earlier, the PTI-backed independent candidates held a joint press conference, which established that the February 8 general election had set new records of rigging.

Despite having the largest number of successful candidates in the general polls, the Khan-founded PTI disapproved of the polls results, saying that the 2024 elections would be remembered in the country’s history due to the scale of rigging.

Published in The Daily National Courier, February, 17 2024

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