File photo of PTI Senator Ali Zafar
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Ali Zafar on Thursday announced the party will approach the Supreme Court against alleged tampering of Form 45s in last month’s general election, while also reiterating demands for an impartial audit of the poll results.
Addressing media outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC), he alleged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had published tampered Form 45s, which are provided to candidates from each polling station with tallies of the total number of votes received.
Zafar also slammed the electoral watchdog for deciding against allocating reserved seats to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), which PTI-backed independent lawmakers joined in a bid to secure reserved seats, and granting them to other parties instead. He claimed a Peshawar High Court (PHC) ruling barring the oath-taking of lawmakers on reserved seats claimed by the SIC until March 13 applied to all assemblies—though legal experts claim the order only applies to the National Assembly.
To a question, the PTI lawyer said the party would challenge the ECP’s reserved seats decision in all provincial high courts.
The PTI has been demanding a full audit of the results of the 2024 general elections since the conduct of the polls on Feb. 8, reiterating the demand after a Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) report ranked the election as the controversial since 2002. In a statement, a PTI spokesperson said the report was sufficient to establish the incumbent government was “imposed” on the nation, and the public’s mandate was “stolen.”