PTI congratules Mamnoon Hussain on being elected as President

PTI hopes that the new elected president would perform his duties without considering any party affiliation.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan stopped short of formally admitting defeat of his party, as he congratulated their competitor, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Mamnoon Hussain on winning Tuesday's presidential elections.

In a statement released by the PTI Central office, Imran said that the President is the head of the state and a symbol of federation and that the PTI hopes the new elected President would perform his constitutional duties without being beholden to any party affiliation.

According to the initial vote count, PML-N’s candidate Mamnoon Hussain has been elected as Pakistan’s 12^th president, comfortably securing the majority vote in the presidential election.

"We hope that Mamnoon Hussain will rise above party affiliation to perform his constitutional duties," the statement read.

Earlier, Imran lamented that the presidential elections had already become controversial. “We could have registered our protest by boycotting it; but then we could not hope to stop the government from getting their candidate elected. So we decided not to leave the field open for them.”