Race to the finish: PTI has sights set on top opposition post

Shah Mehmood Qureshi says he has asked the poll body to increase the number of election tribunals.

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is eyeing the post of opposition leader amid renewed hopes that the verification of votes might give the party a share of seats equal or more than that of the Pakistan Peoples Party, which is currently the second largest party at the centre.

A day earlier, PTI chief Imran Khan had called upon the Election Commission of Pakistan and the Supreme Court to probe the thumbprint impressions of ballots in four National Assembly constituencies in order to ascertain the rigging trend in the May 11 elections.

Imran’s party has secured 29 seats - just three seats short of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) tally of 32 seats in the National Assembly. As per the rule, the PPP will be given first preference in choosing an opposition leader from within its ranks.

Party members say that the demand to ask for thumbprint verification received a boost when Chaudhry Nisar Ali of the PML-N lost a Punjab Assembly seat (PP-7) to Muhammad Siddique Khan of the PTI.

“It is mere coincidence that PTI is three seats behind the PPP and has asked for verification in four constituencies,” said the party’s senior vice president Asad Umar in response to a question whether the ulterior motive behind thumbprint verification of the ballot papers was to grab the seat of leader of the opposition in the National Assembly.

The party has also pointed out 25 constituencies of the lower house where they allege rigging had led to their candidates’ defeat.

Already, the National Registration and Database Authority (NADRA) has expressed readiness to verify ballots through thumbprints for the first time ever. But only election tribunals can actually make such a decision.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Shah Mehmood said, “The number of election tribunals should be increased so that disputes related to the elections are decided expeditiously unlike the past when it took months,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2013.