Pakistan News: PTI's Imran Khan Opts For Opposition Role In Pakistan's Centre And Punjab

On Friday night, it was announced by Dawn that Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will sit in opposition in both the Centre and Punjab province, as efforts to establish the next government persist in the country.

The decision was made public by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's barrister Ali Saif, one day after the party had designated Umar Ayub Khan as its candidate for prime minister and Aslam Iqbal as chief minister for Punjab.

PTI's Imran Khan Opts for Opposition Role

It was announced by Saif to the media that the decision to sit in the opposition at the Centre and Punjab was made by the party under the instructions of party founder Imran Khan, who is currently in jail. Pakistan's PTI stated, "We decided to sit in opposition despite the reality that if we received seats according to our votes and the results were not changed then maybe today we might have been in the Centre with 180 seats. We have the evidence that our candidates won."

In the elections held on February 8, 93 of the 265 National Assembly seats were won by Independent candidates, a majority of whom were backed by Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. The PML-N, led by former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, won 75 seats, while Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) secured 54 seats.

Both the PML-N and PPP announced a post-poll alliance on Tuesday, with Pakistan's Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) agreeing to support them with its 17 seats. To form a government in Pakistan, a party must win 133 seats out of 265 contested seats in the 266-member National Assembly.

Earlier in the day, nationwide protests were announced in the country by the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf against the "unprecedented, massive [and] brazen rigging" in the recent elections. The party alleged that it won "180 National Assembly seats & a two-thirds majority in Parliament" but that "it was cut down to half by the illegitimate, fascist regime."

According to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Information Secretary Raoof Hasan during a press conference, 2024 would be remembered for the "biggest voter fraud" in Pakistan's history against the party and its candidates. He stated, "According to our estimates, out of 177 [National Assembly] seats which were supposed to be ours, only 92 have been given to us. And 85 seats have been taken away from us fraudulently."

Hassan also claimed a significant discrepancy in the numbers of votes polled for National Assembly and provincial assembly seats, highlighting cases where the number of rejected votes exceeded the margin of victory. Additionally, party leader Shandana Gulzar alleged that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed candidates won 1.25 million votes from Karachi but strangely could not secure a single seat.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a petition filed by a citizen seeking to declare the recently held general elections null and void, as reported by The Express Tribune.