— Says President Alvi to invite PTI to form government
— Calls on party workers to protest peacefully outside RO offices today
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar made it clear that PTI had emerged as a lead political party to comfortably form independent governments in the center, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab, as people gave their clear verdict “slavery is unacceptable’.
Speaking at a press conference along with PTI senator Walid Iqbal and PTI Central Information Secretary Raoof Hasan, PTI Chairman congratulated the nation on behalf of PTI Founding Chairman Imran Khan for making a history by trouncing the political opponents in the electoral field with clear margin against all odds.
“Khan Sahab, who is in jail, said we won’t let slavery happen. Now the whole situation is in front of you, as people came out in droves on their leader’s call to vote for PTI who remained unfazed despite facing all operation and suppression,” he added.
Barrister Gohar said: “We will continue to struggle for the rights of the people, and we will present some facts to you. At the moment, PTI has a lead of 170 seats, and legal avenues will be pursued regarding what happened with results.”
PTI Chairman stated that the ECP’s last responsibility was to compile the results in a transparent manner, as according to the law, the contesting candidate, an election agent and an authorised observer needed to be present during the compilation process.
He said that people used their right to vote peacefully on February 8 on ex-premier Imran Khan’s call and it was the ECP’s “constitutional and legal responsibility” to declare polling results by 2am the next day and to explain the reasons if there was a delay.
PTI Chairman urged that the voters’ mandate must be respected and no hurdles should be created for PTI in forming government since it had clear-cut majority with securing victory on 170 National Assembly seats out of the 265 where elections were held.
He said that President Arif Alvi would invite his party to form the government as they had gotten a clear and convincing majority in the National Assembly. He said the economy would not be able to tolerate the suppression of peoples’ voice and forming a desired government.
Gohar Khan stated that PTI Chairman-for-life would decide who will be the next prime minister of Pakistan. “He is the one, always, and he is the leader whether he is in jail or outside,” he added.
“PTI has claimed victory on 39 NA seats out of the 45 in KP, which was historic and unprecedented that a party had won these many National Assembly seats from the province,” he added.
“Out of these, 94 are those that the ECP is admitting and has issued Form-47,” Gohar maintained. PTI Chairman further continued that 22 seats — including three of Islamabad, four of Sindh and the rest of Punjab — were those where according to Form-45, the PTI had won but there was an apparent attempt to shape the winning seats of the PTI into defeats.
Gohar Khan went on to say that PTI had achieved two thirds majority in KP and was heading towards winning a majority in the Punjab Assembly. He stated that they would decide about the chief minister’s post after consultation in two days, adding that his party would also form a government in Punjab.
PTI Chairman said that PTI would use all options including forming alliance with any political party to secure the reserved seats and soon the final decision would be made in this regard.
“We have no quarrel with anyone, we want to move forward. We will proceed and form a government in accordance with the constitution and the law,” Gohar Khan added. “An attempt was made for us to boycott elections. We were almost pushed out of the electoral process,” he maintained.
About Nawaz Sharif’s speech, PTI Chairman said that the self-proclaimed prime minister had 50 seats in the NA, but surprisingly he declared himself the PM.
“We have filed three petitions in the Supreme Court and seven petitions in the High Court. We kept insisting that the elections be held within the constitutionally mandated timeframe of 90 days after the NA was dissolved, the mandate was being suppressed. Finally, the Supreme Court intervened and gave a date for the elections,” he added.
“We were given assurance that we would get a level playing field, but everyone saw that we got striped off of our election symbol and fake and politically-motivated cases were framed against PTI leadership including Imran Khan,” PTI Chairman continued.
“As per the law, the final result is extracted from Form 45 and we have received all the results,” he said, adding that the final results should be announced before 12:00am tonight or else PTI would stage peaceful but strong protests with Pakistani flags outside the offices of the returning officers at the constituencies where results were either withheld and delayed or tampered. “The workers are requested that protest is a right, but it should be peaceful,” he said.
“According to Imran Khan’s instructions, the areas in which our results were withheld and delayed — we will share that list with you — and intentionally our majority is being converted into minority by turning a winning seat into a defeat,” Gohar stated.
PTI Chairman went on to say that their independent candidates were in contact with them, who were loyal to the party and would remain so, adding that they would make their independent government, as the people had given a big mandate to PTI. To a question, he stated that PTI would go towards intra-party elections within 15 days after completion of the process.
