Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub on Friday stated that any talks with “Form-47 parties”, referring to the PPP, PML-N and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), would be dependent on the return of the PTI’s “stolen seats” and the quashing of cases against party founder Imran Khan.
Since the aftermath of the February 8 general elections, the PTI has claimed that the Form 47s of 18 National Assembly seats allegedly won by the party were “falsely changed” by returning officers. The PTI alleges that it was winning “170 seats” according to the Form 45s.
Speaking in an interview with an English daily, Ayub was questioned on which stakeholder the PTI wanted talks with, to which he said: “The three parties — PPP, PML-N and MQM-P — are beneficiaries of Form 47 [manipulation] thus they should step back from that, return our stolen seats to us, quash Imran Khan’s cases and finish military trials of our people and then talks can be held with them.”
Ayub said the party wanted constitutional supremacy but the above three parties had come into power due to “discrepancies in Form 47 and undemocratic discrepancies which we reject”.
He reiterated that the PTI would be willing to hold talks if its “stolen mandate” was returned to it, hinting toward the stepping down of the incumbent government.
Questioned about the party’s previous willingness to hold talks with the PPP and PML-N after the PTI government’s ouster compared to now, Ayub said the situation was different then as “theft [of electoral mandate] due to Form 47 [manipulation] had not happened as it has now”.
