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The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has issued a white paper on alleged rigging in the February 8 general elections, and demanded the formation of the judicial commission to probe the "snatching of the 180 seats," reported Geo News.
PTI chairman Barrister Gohar said at a press conference on Thursday, "We won 180 seats in the (February 8) elections. Our seats were given to other parties through Form 47." The PTI chief emphasised that they had filed a petition in the apex court against the alleged rigging. "But the plea has not been fixed for hearing as yet," Gohar lamented. "We are issuing a 300-page white paper to bring it to the notice of the people as to how their mandate was stolen," Barrister Gohar said, reported Geo News. Notably, the PTI-backed independent candidates won the most National Assembly seats in recent general elections followed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). However later, the PML-N with the support of the other parties, including the PPP formed a coalition government in the centre and later became the single largest party in the lower house of the parliament following the allocation of the reserved seats. Following this, the PTI lost the right to the reserved seats as its members contested elections as independent candidates, reported Geo News. Underscoring the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) decision to declare the party's intra-party polls as invalid, the PTI chief said that his party was forced to contest the general elections without its iconic 'bat' electoral symbol. "Our victory was turned into defeat by (manipulating) election results in the Form 47," he added. Moreover, Gohar stressed that the white paper is based on the reports of international organisations, foreign media and newspapers. He further called for carrying out the electoral reforms to eliminate rigging in the polls once and for all. Meanwhile, PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub said that the ECP was granted billions of rupees to hold free and fair elections in the country. "We demand the chief election commissioner to step down," he emphasised, accusing the polls organising body of failing to hold transparent elections in the country. (ANI)
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