ISLAMABAD: Burning all the boats, the new chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Gohar Ali Khan on Tuesday threw down the gauntlet to his rivals and declared that his party is even ready to field its “Under-19 team” if the entire “A” team is wiped out by a puppeteering Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Speaking at a presser here, a visibly angered Gohar, after the nomination papers of all the frontrunners of his party were rejected by “controversial” returning officers (ROs), said that all those conspiring against the party would not be able to compete with the party’s Under-19 team.
He lambasted the ROs for their decision to reject the party’s papers under pressure from somewhere else, saying no RO had issued correct instructions.
PTI chief says party will not boycott Feb 8 general election
“The PTI will win despite the fact that our nomination papers were rejected as we believe in fighting to the last ball,” he maintained.
He said the Supreme Court of Pakistan had assured that elections would be held in time, adding some people were still struggling to get the polls delayed which would be damaging for the teething democracy of the country.
Gohar said that democracy would derail and parliament be weakened if one party was not allowed to contest elections.
“We will not boycott the elections as the masses will decide who should be voted. We’ve the support of the masses and this is the reason it’s created ripples in some quarters,” he added.
He said “the popularity of PTI is an open secret as everyone knows that it is going to clean sweep the elections despite all the hurdles,” adding “we have pinned high hopes in the judiciary and it will certainly help to ensure a level playing field for PTI.”
The PTI chairman said the reason the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, the Fazal franchise, knows it has no support due to which it is now out to derail the elections.
“It’s the ECP’s job to ensure election in a peaceful and secure environment and top electoral body must discourage such people who are bent upon delaying the polls just because they have no support of masses,” he added.
Last week, the nomination papers of about 700 PTI candidates – both for national and four provincial assemblies – including its founding chairman Imran Khan were rejected by the ROs.
The rejected candidates include almost all the top leaders of the PTI, prompting them to file appeals before the court seeking approval of their nominations.
According to the ECP, a total of 22,711 nomination papers were approved, while at least 1,024 for the National Assembly seats and 2,216 for the provincial assemblies were rejected.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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