PTI laments ‘mandate theft’, asks other parties to show ‘moral courage’

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday dialled up its attacks against tampering with its purported mandate, asking other political parties to show ‘moral courage’, ARY News reported.

Speaking at ARY News programme ‘Aitraz Hai’, PTI leader Ali Muhammad Khan said that his party’s mandate was stolen on more than 100 seats – which according to him was the biggest ‘historic electoral heist’.

“The results were changed overnight and the nation will not accept it”, Ali Muhammad Khan said, warning of unrest in provinces if matters are not resolved in the National Assembly (NA). He also pointed out that there is a difference between the winners declared by Form 45 and Form 47.

Khan also castigated bureaucracy for ‘not doing its job’, asking is providing justice only the responsibility of judiciary. “Is the bureaucracy an employee of the state or a slave of a government”, he asked.

Earlier in the day, PML-N’s Sardar Ayaz Sadiq was elected as the National Assembly speaker, while PPP’s Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah secured the slot of deputy speaker.

Sadiq became the 23rd speaker of the parliament’s lower house after he bagged 199 votes, defeating Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) candidate Malik Aamir Dogar, who bagged 91 votes. Later, Shah secured 197 votes and defeated Junaid Akbar, who bagged 92 votes.

Outgoing speaker Raja Parvez Ashraf administered the oath to Sadiq, while the newly-elected speaker administered the oath to Shah.

The NA session was convened today to elect the speaker and deputy speaker during which opposition lawmakers chanted slogans against alleged rigging in the Feb 8 polls.