Opposition announces protest on Aug 8 against election results

ISLAMABAD: Refusing to accept the election results, the joint opposition has announced to stage protest on August 8 and 9 with a vow to also aggressively pursue the issue in the Parliament.

Calling their group ‘Pakistan Alliance for Free and Fair Election’, the opposition leaders will protest outside the Election Commission office in Islamabad on August 8 and August 9.

They also vowed to raise their voice in both the Senate and National Assembly for constitution of a Parliamentary Commission to probe the allegations of rigging in general elections.

Opposition parties – the Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Jamait-e-Ulema Islam (Fazl) and others – will also issue a white paper on rigging and make a cohesive and united block in the parliament.

They have also finalized their terms of reference that includes planning protests, within and outside parliament, strategy for contesting elections of Prime Minister, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, prepare a white paper to expose the alleged rigging, manipulation and malpractices during July 25 elections, suggest names to establish Parliamentary Commission for it.

Meanwhile, The PTI has reached a simple majority with 173 seats in the lower house of the parliament with the support of independent members and small coalition partners and is in a comfortable position to form the government.

As per procedure, if a party has a clear majority or the magical number of 172 votes, it can easily elect the Leader of the House in the National Assembly.

The PTI emerged as the single largest party with 115 seats in the 2018 general elections but fell short of a clear majority in the 342-member house.

According to the Constitution, if the PTI chief manages to secure 172 or more votes in the first round, the president is bound to call him to take the oath as the country’s next prime minister.