Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader calls Shehbaz Sharif “product” of Form 47

Islamabad [Pakistan], March 4 (ANI): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) lawmaker Omar Ayub Khan has criticised Pakistan’s newly-elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and called him a “product” of Form 47, Pakistan-based Geo News reported.

According to the news report, Form 47 is a document that provides details regarding unconfirmed results of a constituency, including the number of votes cast and cancelled. The PTI has said that its mandate was stolen in the elections held on February 8 and the results were changed in Form 47s.

PTI has claimed that they won 180 NA seats according to the statistics of Form 45s. According to the report, Form 45, also known as the Presiding Officer’s Results of the Count, is the form that the presiding officer (PO) needs to sign and provide with his thumb impression and signature to the polling agents.

The form includes details regarding the number of votes cast in a polling station and also separately mentions how many votes a candidate received from that polling station, according to Geo News report.

Form 47 is another important form related to polling stations. In this form, the count of votes from all the polling stations of a constituency is recorded by the Returning Officer. It marks the provisional consolidated result of the constituency without postal ballots.

After losing the elections for the position of Pakistan’s PM, Omar Ayub called the Shehbaz Sharif-led government a continuation of the former Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) led regime, Geo News reported.

Highlighting the “discriminations” with PTI, Omar Ayub said that they demanded reserved seats during the elections for speaker and deputy speaker’s position. However, Pakistan’s then-National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf refused to stop the voting.

He said, “Our objection on Shehbaz Sharif’s nomination papers was dismissed.” He said that PTI was stripped of its election symbol, however, the leadership of PTI did not bow down. He further stated that PTI was not given a level playing field and barred from holding election campaigns.

Calling the former Pakistan Democratic Movement-led government (PDM) “fascist”, Ayub questioned who was the murderer of journalist Arshad Sharif and PTI worker Zille Shah. He accused the ruling alliance of getting PTI candidates’ nomination papers rejected before the general elections.

Omar Ayub Khan called for an independent inquiry into the May 9 protests. Notably, protests erupted on May 9 after the former Pakistan PM Imran Khan was arrested in the £190 million settlement case. Hundreds of PTI workers and senior leaders were arrested for their involvement in violence and attacks on military installations.

Addressing the House, Omar Ayub called for the speaker’s ruling for a live telecast of his speech like that of the Pakistan PM. Highlighting the double standards, he said, “There are two laws in the country. Nawaz Sharif was provided a biometric facility at the airport [in violation of the laws],” Geo News reported.

The PTI leader stated that PML-N knew that their mandate was fake and added, “You will see fear on their faces.” He said, “Our number would have been 180 if the MNAs, elected as per Form 45s, had come.” In his address, lawmakers from the ruling alliance tried to disrupt Omar Ayub’s address and protested multiple times.

During his address, Omar Ayub demanded an impartial inquiry into the killing of dozens of PTI supporters on May 9, according to Geo News report. He noted that over 10,000 PTI workers and supporters continue to remain behind bars and demanded their release. He also demanded the release of former Pakistan PM Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi.