Ali Amin Gandapur, the provincial president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), emphasized the resilience of PTI workers in the face of challenges, including harassment by law enforcement, FIRs against party leaders, and interference by government officials.
He issued a stern warning to those involved in manipulating election results, cautioning government servants against meddling in the electoral process. Gandapur asserted PTI’s determination to form the government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
He condemned attempts to alter Form 47s and manipulate the results of winning PTI candidates, labeling such actions as high treason. Gandapur highlighted the gravity of the situation, emphasizing that those responsible for electoral misconduct would be held accountable in due time.
Background
Independent candidates continued to consolidate their lead in the General Elections 2024 over mainstream political parties, completing the century of victors in the National Assembly for the first time ever, according to the results announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) till Saturday.
Barring a few, independents, backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), have crossed the 300 mark, when the number of winners in the provincial assembly were added. They clean-swept the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, and won a sizeable chunk in Punjab, according to the ECP Form-47 results.
The PTI could not contest the elections on Thursday because it was denied its electoral symbol of ‘bat’ due to its controversial intra-party elections. Instead, the party fielded its candidates as independent with different electoral symbols.
Read: Gandapur may be next K-P CM
By Saturday, the ECP issued the Form-47 results of 255 National Assembly constituencies. Election could not be held on one National Assembly and three provincial assembly seats because of the death of the candidates. The ECP had also ordered re-polling at one National and two provincial constituencies.
The 100 PTI-backed independents are followed by 73 seats of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), 54 of the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), 17 of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), three each of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and PML-Quaid, two of the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) and one each of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), PML-Zia, Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen Pakistan (MWMP).
Provincial assemblies
According to the results, out of 295 Punjab Assembly contests, both the PTI-backed independents and the PML-N won 137 seats each; followed by the PPPP, 10; PML-Q, 7; and the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, IPP, and PML-Z one seat each.
In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the PTI-backed independents swept the election, winning 37 National Assembly seats out of 44 and 86 out of 115 provincial assembly contests. In the National Assembly contests, the PTI-backed independents are followed by two seats each of the JUI-F and the PML-N. One seat each went to the MWMP, the PPP and a non-PTI independent.
The independents routed opponents in Chitral, Swat, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Malakand, Buner, Battagram, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Swabi, Mardan, Charsadda, Nowshera, Khyber, Mohmand, Kohat, Hangu, Orakzai, Karak, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, South Waziristan, and Tank.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 12th, 2024.
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