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Supporters of the Grand Democratic Alliance attend a rally to protest in opposition to what they name vote-rigging in some constituencies within the parliamentary elections, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, Pakistan, Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. (AP)
Jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) mentioned that at the least 85 parliamentary seats it had gained have been seized in what they described because the “largest voter fraud” within the nation’s historical past. They introduced to stage “peaceful” nationwide protests on Saturday to protest in opposition to the alleged rigging.
In the February Eight election, impartial candidates, nearly all of whom have been supported by Khan’s PTI, secured 93 out of the 265 National Assembly seats that have been contested.
However, PTI’s two primary rivals seem heading in the right direction to kind a coalition authorities after former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) fashioned a post-poll alliance on Tuesday.
The PML-N gained 75 seats whereas the PPP got here third with 54 seats.
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The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) has additionally agreed to help them with their 17 seats. To kind a authorities, a celebration should win 133 seats out of 265 contested seats within the 266-member National Assembly.
On Friday, PTI leaders claimed that it was disadvantaged of at the least 85 seats within the National Assembly, the decrease home, due to alleged rigging of the election held on February 8.
PTI’s Information Secretary Raoof Hasan and different leaders together with Sher Afzal Marwat, Rehana Dar, Shoaib Shaheen and Salman Akram Raja, who challenged their election outcomes earlier than numerous boards, addressed a press convention right here.
Hasan mentioned that 2024 would be remembered due to the “biggest voter fraud” in Pakistan’s historical past in opposition to the get together and its candidates.
“According to our estimates, out of 177 [National Assembly] seats which were supposed to be ours, only 92 have been given to us. And 85 seats have been taken away from us fraudulently,” he mentioned.
He mentioned that the get together was taking constitutional and authorized steps to counter the rigging and get its proper.
“We have verified data about 46 seats and it is being compiled for 39 seats,” he mentioned.
Hassan additionally highlighted the discrepancies between Form 45 and Form 47, which respectively cope with counting in every polling station in a constituency and the general rely of all polling stations.
Hassan claimed there was an enormous distinction within the numbers of votes polled for National Assembly and provincial meeting seats. He mentioned that the variety of rejected votes, in sure instances, exceeded the margin of victory. PTI chief Shandana Gulzar mentioned that the get together bagged 1.25 million votes from Karachi however unusually couldn’t win a single seat.
Party chief and senior lawyer Salman Akram Raja claimed that rigging occurred when outcomes have been being shifted from the polling station to the workplaces of returning officers.
“The outcomes which ought to have been introduced primarily based on Form 45 have been utterly modified.
They rigged the elections on the evening of February Eight as a lot as potential,” he mentioned.
Separately, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb mentioned at a press convention in Lahore that TV channels began displaying partially counted outcomes, which started to change as extra outcomes have been introduced after completion of relying on different polling stations. “Form 45 was floated on the media and social media beforehand when results were still being compiled,” she mentioned.
She mentioned PTI was questioning the lead to Punjab the place it misplaced nevertheless it was not speaking concerning the leads to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa because it gained the province. “It is part of PTI culture to reject elections when it loses,” she mentioned.
Meanwhile, the PTI already declared to maintain protests within the nation on Saturday and it was additionally making an attempt to win the help of different events. The PTI has referred to as for countrywide protests tomorrow (Saturday) in opposition to the “unprecedented, massive [and] brazen rigging” within the elections.
In a put up on X, the PTI claimed that its “win of 180 National Assembly seats and a two-thirds majority in Parliament was cut down to half”.
In a associated growth, Pakistan’s Supreme Court will hear on Monday a petition searching for to declare the just lately held common elections null and void, amidst allegations by a number of events of ballot rigging and deliberate delay in saying the outcomes.
The petition, which might be heard by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, seeks the apex courtroom to declare the outcomes of the February 8 polls null and void and get elections re-conducted inside 30 days underneath the supervision and oversight of the judiciary, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.
According to the report, the petitioner, a personal citizen, additionally has made the Election Commission of Pakistan and the federal authorities as respondents within the case.
In the meantime, a gathering between the PML-N and the PPP coordination committees, which was anticipated to happen on Friday for finalising authorities formation within the Centre, has been postponed, in accordance to a media report.
The assembly was reportedly postponed because the PML-N’s committee has but to seek the advice of on the matter with the get together’s senior management, Geo News reported. The second spherical of talks between the 2 events to determine on the power-sharing method between them for the formation of a coalition authorities will be held on Saturday, it mentioned.
With inputs from PTI.
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