ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday dubbed the presidential election as unconstitutional and unacceptable saying the newly-elected President Asif Ali Zardari grabbed the highest constitutional position due to ‘votes of mandate thieves’ while the Electoral College was incomplete.
PTI Senator Syed Ali Zafar talking to reporters here said that the presidential election was held in the country despite a stay order by court on reserved seats. He went on to say that this election was controversial, lacking transparency. He added that his party participated in the election and cast votes as a symbol of protest and resilience, despite concerns about its credibility. Separately, a PTI spokesperson said that the vote of the unelected members, who took oath on the basis of ‘stolen mandate’, for the president was completely unconstitutional. He stated that a spectacle was staged in the name of the presidential election and the unelected members on reserved seats were sworn in by brazenly flouting the court order.
The spokesperson further noted that the election for the slot of the highest constitutional position without completing the Electoral College was a violation to the constitution. He alleged that after the theft of the public mandate in the daylight, making the rejected people members of the National and Punjab assemblies by trampling upon the court order under their feet put a big question mark on the independence of the judiciary.
The PTI spokesperson made it clear that the votes of the non-elected members and those sitting in the assemblies on the basis of ‘fake Form 47’ in the Presidential elections would have no legal and constitutional value and status. He underscored that the only agenda to steal PTI’s mandate in the dark of the night and to deprive it of its constitutional right of the reserved seats was to help a coalition of corrupt sneak into power and to ensure election of the rejected person to the highest constitutional office of the country.
The spokesperson recalled that those who threatened to drag each other on the streets till yesterday, as they labeled each other looters and bandits, had once again united for their vested interests to ruthlessly plunder the national exchequer anew. He accused that the worst series of violations of the constitution and the law along with the insult of the public mandate were brazenly continued. He vowed that PTI would hold a peaceful protest across the country today (Sunday) on the call of party founder Imran Khan to reclaim the stolen mandate from the thieves.
As presidential election results poured in from all legislative assemblies, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) candidate Mahmood Khan Achakzai on Saturday expressed his views that the country has witnessed “first of its kind of poll” for the coveted post without “horse-trading” in which he contested joint candidate of ruling coalition — Asif Ali Zardari. Accepting his defeat against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) nominee Zardari in the presidential race, Achakzai told reporters that it was a unique election in which “horse-trading” was not witnessed. He congratulated Zardari on becoming the president of Pakistan for a second term and termed it the “beginning of a new era” as it was a “rare” poll which was held in a good environment.
He also thanked the PTI-backed lawmakers for voting in his support, however, he specifically complained about the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and the National Party (NP) for not casting their votes despite announcing to sit in the opposition.
