ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has called for nationwide demonstrations on Saturday to protest what it calls “brazen rigging” of Feb. 8 national election in the South Asian country.
Khan’s PTI was severely hamstrung ahead of the February 8 polls, with rallies banned, its party symbol taken away, and dozens of its candidates rejected from eligibility to stand.
The party stunned election observers after independent candidates, most loyal to Khan, grabbed the highest 101 seats in the National Assembly, lower house of Pakistan parliament.
However, the party on Friday urged its supporters to protest what it called widespread rigging of the polls.
“Imran Khan’s PTI has called for country wide protests against the unprecedented, massive, brazen rigging in General Elections 2024, where PTI’s win of 180 National Assembly seats & a two-third majority in Parliament, was cut down to half,” the party said on X.
Pakistan’s election commission has denied the accusations and said legal forums were present to address any specific concerns relating to the polls.
Khan, who has been in jail since August last year after he was convicted in a case involving the illegal sale of state gifts, accuses Pakistan’s powerful military of sidelining him and his party from politics. The military denies Khan’s accusations and says it does not interfere in political matters.
A day earlier, Gohar Khan, the current PTI chairman, said his party would present Forms 45 at a press conference in Islamabad on Friday.
Form 45, given to election candidates or their representatives at polling stations, contains details of the breakdown of votes. Since last week’s election, the PTI has been saying that the results in Forms 45 received by its candidates were changed in Forms 47, which are official declaration of constituency results by a returning officer of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
“We have been repeatedly telling the people and we have shared all those Forms 45 on social media,” Gohar told a private news channel Thursday night.
“Tomorrow, we are organizing a [press conference] at Marriott Hotel [Islamabad] and we will put all Forms 45 in front of media, international media and the people will see how the mandate has been stolen.”
The PTI chairman said they had “exact proofs” of election manipulation.
This is the third time since the election that Khan’s PTI, along with other political parties, have staged protests in various parts of the country over election irregularities, especially over prolonged delays in the release of final results. The party has challenged these results in several constituencies.