Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its allies have secured more than 180 seats in the National Assembly following successful coalition talks, party spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry claimed on Thursday. Chaudhry tweeted that the party had secured support from the Balochistan National Party-Mengal, taking the tally of seats in its camp to over 180.

The support of at least 172 MNAs is needed in the lower house of the Parliament to claim simple majority and form government. On Wednesday, BNP-M had agreed to lend its support to the PTI in the National Assembly as the two parties signed an agreement that PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi said would ‘strengthen the federation’. BNP-M leader Akhtar Mengal said the two parties had inked ‘a historic agreement’ after the PTI agreed to his party’s demands to solve the ‘missing persons’ issue and implement the National Action Plan holistically. Under the agreement between the two parties, the demographic identity of Balochistan will also be preserved whereas dams will be built to curb the risk of relocation. With the agreement with BNP-M, the PTI now has the support of MQM-Pakistan, BAP, BNP-M, and PML-Q, besides independents. Separately, PTI spokesperson Naeemul Haque on Thursday urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to notify the victory on remaining seats on an urgent basis. “ECP should issue victory notifications on an urgent basis so that the PTI chairman [Imran Khan] can take oath as the prime minister,” Haque said, while addressing the media in Islamabad. “We are trying our best to ensure that the date for prime minister’s oath-taking ceremony is announced as soon as possible so we can start working towards Naya Pakistan,” he reiterated.

The PTI leader added, “Imran has received victory notifications for three constituencies.” He said the caretaker administration had already forwarded a summary for the inaugural session of the National Assembly (NA) to the president. “We appeal the president to postpone his foreign trip scheduled for August 16 by a day,” he said, adding that his party was in a position to form government in the centre, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Speaking about the opposition parties’ rigging allegations, Haque said, “Imran has vowed to aid in probing allegations. Protests and legal proceedings against alleged rigging are the right of every candidate. The shortcomings we pointed out during the 2013 elections have still not been addressed.”

Published in Daily Times, August 10^th 2018.