Islamabad: No democracy can function and no government can be formed in Pakistan without jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, a senior party leader asserted on Tuesday as rival political parties were in talks to form a coalition government.
Expressing astonishment at reports of a power-sharing formula being discussed between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party leader Latif Khosa described it as a joke that rival political parties were putting forward such a proposal.
The 71-year-old jailed cricketer-turned-politician and PTI founder will have to be brought back, he said.
“Who are they – who have been rejected by the people – to divide among themselves… No Assembly or Parliament can function without Imran Khan. No democracy can function and no government can be formed with Imran Khan.
“So rid yourself of the misunderstanding that by minusing Imran they will be able to operate a democracy or the government. You will have to bring Imran Khan back,” Dawn News quoted Khosa as saying.
Independent candidates, mostly backed by Khan’s PTI, won 101 seats in the 266-member National Assembly in the February 8 general elections. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N has won 75 seats and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto’s PPP has won 54 seats.
He said the election results were “correct” up till the issuance of the Form 45.
“According to the Form 45, as many as 170 of our people are winning. They are not independent because PTI exists as a legal and constitutional party. Calling us independent is wrong and illegal,” he said.
Form 45, commonly referred to as the “Result of the Count” form, is a crucial record in the Pakistani electoral process which is intended to uphold openness and accountability by documenting and disclosing the outcomes of the voting procedure at a particular polling place.
Khosa said that if reserved seats were added to this number, then the PTI would cross the 200 mark in the National Assembly. “The largest political party which emerges in the election is given the right to form the government,” he said.
“And because ours is the largest political party, he will be the prime minister. And no one can stop him,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is formulating a plan to form its government in the Centre, Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after independent candidates backed by the party bagged 101 of the 266 National Assembly seats in the recently concluded February 8 elections marred by allegations of rigging.
The PTI-backed candidates ran as independents due to the party losing the election symbol of bat’ following controversy surrounding its intra-party elections.
According to the party, the PTI was cruising with a lead of 170 National Assembly seats before the alleged rigging swung the pendulum in favour of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.
Around 60 million, or approximately 47 per cent, of nearly 129 million voters cast their ballots last Thursday to elect a new government to bring cash-strapped Pakistan out of a financial crunch.
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