Jailed Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) has announced its decision to sit in the opposition in the parliament and launch a countrywide protest against alleged rigging in elections. The major political parties in Pakistan have been trying to form a federal government following the split verdict in the February 8, 2024 elections.
While the PTI backed independent candidates performed well in the election, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) claimed to have enough numbers to from the government as some independents joined PML-N party after polls.
On February 16, 2024, the PTI barrister Muhammad Saif said that the PTI will sit in the opposition at both Centre as well as in the key province of Punjab following the instructions of PTI founder Imran Khan. The decision came after the party named Umar Ayub Khan as its candidate for the Prime Minister and Aslam Iqbal as the Chief Minister of Punjab Province (Pakistan).
While talking to media, Saif explained that the party has decided to sit in the opposition despite having evidence that their candidates won and the results were not changed. “We decided to stay in the opposition despite the reality that if we receive seats according to votes and the results have been not changed then maybe today, we might have been in the Centre with 180 seats. We have evidence that our candidates have won.”
The PTI has also issued a White Paper against alleged rigging and plans to kick off its demonstrations on February 17, 2024. The core committee of the PTI met on February 16, 2024 and finalized the plans for the nationwide protest campaign on the call of the party founder Imran Khan.
“We will not take any political revenge, but we will take the country and then nation forward for the sake of development of the country and the nation,” PTI leader Muhammad Ali Khan conveyed following a 30min long meeting with Imran Khan at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail. The meeting urged the entire nation to come out of their houses against the massive rigging and the meeting also sought resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner.
The Information Secretary of the PTI, Raoof Hasan said that 2024 will be remembered due to the biggest voter fraud in the history of Pakistan against the party and candidates. “According to our estimates, out of 177 National Assembly seats which were supposed to be ours and only 92 have been given to us and 85 seats have been taken away from us fraudulently,” Hasan said.
Hasan claimed that there was a huge difference in the number of votes polled for National Assembly and provincial assembly seats. He said that the number of rejected votes in certain cases, exceeded the margin of victory.
