PTI decries speaker polls sans reserved seats

Announces peaceful protest across the country today against 'large-scale polls robbery'

ISLAMABAD:

In a vehement rebuke, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday denounced the election of the speaker, deputy speaker, and prime minister in what it labelled as a fraudulent and incomplete National Assembly, devoid of reserved seats for women and minorities.

The former ruling party deemed the election as a violation of constitutional principles.

The PTI spokesperson expressed strong disapproval over the election of the NA speaker and deputy speaker without the prior allocation of reserved seats, asserting that individuals elected with the support of alleged mandate thieves held no constitutional legitimacy.

Citing Article 51 of the Constitution, the spokesperson emphasised that the National Assembly cannot be deemed complete without the allocation of reserved seats for women and minorities, proportionate to each political party's representation.
The spokesperson highlighted that 23 PTI-backed members were being denied their constitutional rights under a dubious scheme. Despite this, the spokesperson affirmed the nation's resilience against such malicious plots.

He accused a group of mandate thieves of unlawfully occupying the National Assembly, asserting that their artificial victory would turn into defeat if PTI-backed candidates' reserved seats were allocated according to the constitution.

The spokesperson argued that those who took a fake oath after allegedly stealing the public mandate were aware that their presence in the house was not a result of public votes but rather facilitated by a corrupt and biased Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Stressing that the majority granted by the people to PTI founder chairman Imran Khan had been converted into a minority through alleged daylight polls robbery, the spokesperson insisted that the election of speaker, deputy speaker, and prime minister would only be deemed constitutional and legal when all truly elected representatives were present in the lower house.

The PTI spokesperson called for an end to the continued disregard of the people's clear verdict and urged the allocation of reserved seats to the party as per the constitutional framework.

He announced that the people would stage a peaceful protest across the country on Saturday (today)  to voice their opposition against the alleged large-scale polls robbery, following the directives of the incarcerated leader, Imran Khan, in a bid to reclaim what he termed the stolen public mandate.