Pakistan elections: Imran Khan’s party petitions Supreme Court against alleged rigging

Jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s party on Friday approached the Supreme Court challenging the outcome of the February 8 general elections alleging widespread rigging.

Khan has already declared the entire process as the ‘Mother of All Rigging’ and has been insisting that his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) mandate was stolen because of the rigging.

The party has claimed that it won 180 seats in the National Assembly by way of independent candidates backed by the party, however, the rigging ensured that the number was reduced to 92 seats only, thus robbing its chance of coming back to power.

Sher Afzal Marwat, a senior PTI leader, told media persons that he moved the apex court against poll fraud.

He also said he has challenged the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and other members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The petition comes two days after the top court disposed of a petition seeking to annul the elections and imposed a fine of Rs 0.5 million on a petitioner, a former Army officer, for failing to appear in court after filing the petition.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the party led by another former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, won 75 seats while the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) came third with 54 seats. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) has 17 seats.

Given the Constitutional provision that a party must win 133 out of 265 contested seats in the 266-member National Assembly to form a government, the PML-N and the PPP have agreed on a power-sharing deal to form a new coalition government.

Under this arrangement, PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif is projected as the prime minister candidate, while PPP's Asif Ali Zardari is to be the president, and may effectively end Khan's chances of returning to power.

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