Barrister Gohar says alliance with MWM on the cards

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: With winning reserved seats in mind, PTI leader Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said on Saturday that the party was set to form an alliance with Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) after the PTI-backed independent candidates clinched victory in 100 National Assembly seats in the February 8 general elections.

If PTI’s independents join MWM, they can take a share of the further 70 unelected seats reserved for women and religious minorities, which are allocated according to party performance in the contested vote.

Claiming that as per form 45, PTI had so far won 170 seats in the National Assembly (NA), Gohar Ali Khan said that besides Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the party would also form governments at Center and the Punjab.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, Gohar Ali Khan went on to say that the PTI was in a position to comfortably form government in KP where it had got two-thirds majority.

Gohar further said that 22 seats, three of Islamabad, four of Sindh and the remaining 15 of Punjab were those, where, as per Form-45, the PTI-supported candidates had won, but their victories had been “converted into a defeat”.

Gohar while referring to the former prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s yesterday’s address, said how tragic it was that the man whose party even did not have 50 seats in the NA, was dreaming to become the country’s prime minister.

The PTI leader stressed the need for respecting the mandate given by the people to the party. He said people used their right to vote peacefully on February 8 on Imran Khan’s call.

He went on to say that now it was the ECP’s “constitutional and legal responsibility” to declare polling results by 2am tomorrow and to explain reasons for delay in their announcement.

Emphasizing that the ECP’s “last responsibility was to compile results in a transparent manner”, Gohar said that according to the law, the candidate, an election agent and an authorised observer needed to be present during the counting of votes.