ISLAMABAD: PTI’s Senator Barrister Ali Zafar has announced that his party will go to the Supreme Court against the alleged tampering of Form-45s in last month’s general election.

The party has also demanded a thorough and impartial audit of the election results.

Speaking to the media outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday, Mr Zafar said: “We will challenge that matter (of Form-45s) before the Supreme Court.”

He accused the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) of publishing tampered Form-45s, which carry the total number of votes received by a candidate at a polling station.

Party spokesperson demands audit of election results after Pildat report

The PTI leader also censured the electoral watchdog for depriving the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) — the party joined by PTI-backed independent lawmakers — of its reserved seats and awarding them to other parties.

Mr Zafar claimed that the Peshawar High Court had already given a decision in PTI’s favour, and it was valid for provincial and national assemblies.

The court has barred the members of other parties who have been awarded SIC’s reserved seats from taking oath in the National Assembly until March 13.

Mr Zafar said his party would also challenge the ECP’s decision not to allocate the party reserved women and minority seats in other provincial high courts.

PTI demands elections’ audit

A PTI spokesperson has demanded a thorough and impartial audit of the election results in light of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency’s (Pildat) assessment report.

In its report ‘Assessment of the Quality of General Election 2024’, released on Wednesday, the think tank noted that the February 8 general elections ranked below the previous two electoral exercises in terms of fairness and called on the ECP to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into delays in the compilation and transmission of results.

The spokesperson said the assessment report has raised alarming questions over the transparency, fairness and credibility of the elections and the electoral watchdog must address these concerns.

The Pildat’s assessment report was enough to prove the incumbent government is made up of “rejected” characters who have been “imposed on the nation” through result manipulation and tampering, the spokesperson added.

All factors, from the delayed announcement of the election schedule to the suspension of cell phone and mobile data on polling day, established that the elections were “the least fair” of all polls held during the past decade.

The spokesperson claimed that the scheme of converting the majority into a minority through alleged results tampering had already been unmasked by the former Rawalpindi commissioner.

The tampered Form-45s, published by the electoral watchdog on its website days after the mandated timeline, was a sheer violation of the Election Act, 2017, and further exposed the plot of tampering, the PTI spokesperson claimed.

A spectacle was created in the name of elections to reimpose the clique who “destroyed the country and economy” during their 16-month rule.

The spokesperson alleged that the public mandate was stolen “under state patronage”.

“An unconstitutional government established on a stolen mandate neither has the ability nor the capacity to take tough and solid decisions for the welfare of the nation.”

After depriving PTI of the seats it “won convincingly”, the plan to distribute SIC’s reserved seats among other political parties would worsen the political instability and chaos.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2024