[🇵🇰] Pakistan General Elections -- 2024

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Bilawal outlines PPP's conciliatory vision for Balochistan​

Mar 02, 18:19
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari addressed the media in Quetta on Saturday, outlining the party's commitment to resolving the multifaceted challenges faced by Balochistan.

Bilawal, along with the newly-elected Chief Minister of Balochistan, Sarfraz Bugti, and other PPP members, emphasised the importance of a collaborative and conciliatory approach to governance.

He highlighted that the PPP would work with all stakeholders, both inside and outside the provincial assembly, to address the problems confronting Balochistan. He expressed his intention to govern in accordance with the conciliatory thinking of his late mother, Benazir Bhutto, who advocated for inclusive and cooperative governance.

 

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Shehbaz, Ayub submit nomination papers for PM election​

Election for the PM would be conducted through the division of members in the house

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Rizwan Shehzad
March 02, 2024

ISLAMABAD: The coalition candidate for the office of prime minister, PML-N's Shehbaz Sharif, and the PTI nominee for the post, Omar Ayub, submitted their nomination papers on Saturday.

Leaders of coalition parties including Khawaja Asif, Khurshid Shah, Attaullah Tarar and Tariq Bashir Cheema were present to submit Shehbaz's papers.

For PTI, party leaders Asad Qaiser, Aamir Dogar, Ali Muhammad, and Barrister Gohar Khan were in attendance to submit Ayub's nomination papers.

The nomination papers for the two candidates were received by Secretary-General National Assembly Tahir Hussain.

The scrutiny of nomination papers will be completed by 3pm today (Saturday).

PM election process

The election for the PM would be conducted through the division of members in the house.

As per the Constitution, before the voting process begins for the slot of prime minister, bells will ring for five minutes inside the Parliament House to inform every member — in case they are not present in the chamber at the moment — to gather inside.

Once the process begins, the doors will be locked, and no one will be allowed to enter or leave the hall till the PM’s election is concluded.

For example, if there are two candidates, the speaker will say that ‘whoever wants to vote for candidate A can go to lobby A’ and ‘whoever wants to vote for candidate B, can go to lobby B’.

If there are three candidates then there can be a lobby C as well.

At the entrance of the said lobbies, a member of the assembly secretariat staff will record the name of every member of the National Assembly in the register.

The whole process will be open and people sitting in the galleries will be able to see who votes for whom. The political parties have to vote collectively and every member has to vote for the candidate that their party is voting for.

Section 91(4) of the Constitution states, “The Prime Minister shall be elected by the votes of the majority of the total membership of the National Assembly: Provided that, if no member secures such a majority in the first poll, a second poll shall be held between the members who secure the two highest numbers of votes in the first poll and the member who secures a majority of votes of the members present and voting shall be declared to have been elected as Prime Minister:

Provided further that, if the number of votes secured by two or more members securing the highest number of votes is equal, further poll shall be held between them until one of them secures a majority of votes of the members present and voting.”

 

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Khawaja Asif named PML-N parliamentary leader in NA​

Updated Mar 02,

Khawaja Asif has officially been designated as the parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the National Assembly. The appointment notification for Khawaja Asif has been duly issued.

Ahsan Iqbal, the Secretary General of PML-N, communicated Asif's appointment to the Speaker of the National Assembly via a formal letter.

In a separate development, the PML-N has issued a show cause notice to the recently elected Member of the National Assembly (MNA), Nelson Azeem. The notice is in response to Azeem's non-participation in the elections for speaker and deputy speaker in the National Assembly.

 

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PTI protests alleged election irregularities, calls for justice​

Mar 02,
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) organised nationwide protests on Saturday, alleging electoral malpractice during the general elections held on February 8. After clashes with law enforcement, several PTI leaders and supporters were taken into police custody.

Claiming electoral violations, PTI supporters gathered across the country for protests. The Insaf Lawyers Forum (ILF), along with PTI supporters, held a demonstration outside the Lahore High Court (LHC) in Lahore. Despite a strong police presence at GPO Chowk, water cannons were ready to disperse protesters.

At GPO Chowk, law enforcement used batons to disperse agitated PTI supporters, leading to the detention of several leaders and activists, including Mian Shehzad Farooq, Hafiz Zeeshan, and former Secretary of the Supreme Court Bar, Aftab Bajwa.

 

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Nomination papers of presidential candidates filed at IHC​

Mar 02,
PPP’s Farooq H Naik and Saleem Mandviwala arrived in the courtroom of IHC Chief Justice Aamir Farooq to file nomination papers of party co-chairperson Asif Zardari as the coalition government’s nominee for president.

Justice Farooq will receive nomination papers of the candidates as the presiding officer for the presidential elections.

On the other hand, opposition members of the Sunni Ittehad Council including Latif Khosa and Omar Ayub also arrived at the high court to submit PkMAP chief Mahmood Achakzai’s nomination papers.

The elections are scheduled to be held on March 9.

 

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NA win sets stage for Shehbaz election tomorrow​

Updated Mar 02,
In what appeared to be a dress rehearsal of the election of the prime minister, the newly-stitched ruling alliance passed the first test of showing its numerical strength on Friday when their nominees for the speaker and deputy speaker slots sailed through without any hiccup.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) clinched the two top positions in the National Assembly as PML-N’s Ayaz Sadiq and PPPP’s Ghulam Mustafa Shah were elected speaker and deputy speaker, respectively, on NA’s second day of the inaugural session.

The result of the election of the speaker and deputy speaker was a forgone conclusion as both Sadiq and Shah were the joint candidates of the PML-N, PPPP, and MQM-P, among others, who have clear numerical superiority over the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed candidates sitting in assembly under the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) banner

 

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Fazl arrives in Karachi, likely to skip NA sitting​

JUI-F secretary says Fazl to hold "important meeting", make a speech regarding election rigging.

 

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54pc Pakistanis say polls were transparent: report​

The Newspaper's Staff Reporter
March 3, 2024

ISLAMABAD: While Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has been alleging that it was deprived of almost 80 seats of National Assembly, a recent study claimed that 54 per cent of Pakistanis believed the elections were overall transparent.

The study was conducted by IPSOS, one of the largest research companies operating in 90 countries with more than 20,000 research professionals.

However, 39pc thought the February 8 elections were rigged. The highest perception of rigging came from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the province in which the PTI won majority, and where 73pc people believed that elections were rigged.

IPSOS in its study, “Post-election perception survey regarding transparency and rigging”, interviewed over 3,000 people from across the country.

 

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PPP ready to seek MQM support for Zardari’s presidential bid​

Ishaq Tanoli | Mohammad Hussain Khan
March 3, 2024

KARACHI/SEHWAN: The Pakistan Peoples Party on Saturday filed nomination papers of its candidate Asif Ali Zardari for the March 9 presidential election and announced that it would approach all parliamentary groups including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan to get their support for the PPP-Parliamentarian president.

Mr Zardari, who had earlier served as the president of Pakistan from 2008 to 2013, is set to run for his second term as the joint candidate of PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz for the country’s top constitutional office.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and former local government minister Nasir Shah are the proposer and seconder of Mr Zardari, respectively.

 

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Action sought against PTI workers for ‘throwing’ shoe in KP Assembly​

Bureau Report
March 3, 2024

The photo shows PML-N’ Sobia Shahid holding a shoe and lota during the KP Assembly session on Feb 20.

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has submitted an application to the police for the registration of an FIR against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf workers for throwing a shoe and a lota at its woman lawmaker, Sobia Shahid, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Feb 20.

PML-N provincial president Amir Muqam told reporters at the Peshawar Press Club on Saturday that the PTI workers, who were involved in the incident, also shouted slogans and used derogatory language against the woman lawmaker.

He said that the Feb 20 incident showed that the PTI workers didn’t know how to behave when it came to women.

“The PTI had invited goons to the assembly who disrespected opposition members, particularly women. The PTI violated the sanctity of the house,” he said.

Muqam says party will move FIA if FIR not registered

Mr Muqam demanded of the assembly’s speaker to take action over the “attack” on the woman MPA.

Accompanied by lawmaker Sobia Shahid, PML-N Women’s Wing provincial general secretary Farah Khan and other office-bearers, the party leader said that what happened in the newly-elected provincial assembly in its maiden session was regrettable.

“Why do you take this thing [opposition] to enmity? If you’re given so many seats in the provincial assembly, what else do you want?”

 

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Shehbaz Sharif elected prime minister for 2nd time, vows to steer Pakistan ‘back to shore’ in victory speech​

Dawn.com
March 3, 2024

PM-elect Shehbaz Sharif hugs his elder brother and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif in the National Assembly on March 3, 2024. — DawnNewsTv


After being elected as the 24th premier of Pakistan on Sunday, PM-elect Shehbaz Sharif vowed to steer the country “back to shore” with the help of allied parties in his second tenure in the top office.
Shehbaz won the prime minister’s election today after clinching 201 votes against his PTI-backed opponent from the Sunni Ittehdad Council (SIC) Omar Ayub Khan, who managed to secure 92 votes.

Following the announcement by National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Shehbaz hugged his elder brother and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, who was widely expected to become the prime minister following the Feb 8 elections but stepped aside for reasons unknown in favour of his sibling.

In his first speech on the floor of the newly elected house as the PM-elect, Shehbaz said that big challenges lay ahead in Pakistan’s path but they could be overcome “if we come together and decide to change the country’s fate” by taking it to its rightful position.

As he thanked his brother and allied parties for posing their trust in him by electing him as the leader of the house again, PTI-backed lawmakers from the SIC chanted slogans from the opposition benches, calling the siblings “thieves” — possibly a reference to their claim that the PML-N stole the mandate given to them by the public.

 

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Ahsan Iqbal advises PTI to stop mudslinging, serve Pakistan​

PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal has advised PTI leaders to stop the mudslinging campaign and focus their attention and energies on serving people as the country requires national unity at this time, APP reports.

“PTI has a track record of instigating chaos and blaming others for involvement in electoral rigging”, he said while talking to a private news channel outside the National Assembly.

He said the PTI founder would not get a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), adding that, “he must demonstrate his innocence in court.” Iqbal also emphasised political stability, which he termed vital for achieving economic stability in the country.

 

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PDM 2 knows mandate was stolen: PTI’s Omar Ayub Khan​

PTI nominee for premier Omar Ayub has claimed that the coalition government is well aware that the PTI’s mandate was stolen in elections.

“The PDM 2 faces show that they know the theft [of the mandate] has taken place,” Ayub said, adding that the Feb 8 polls were a “selection”.

 

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‘You talk about rule of law but never enforced it’: Ayub tells Shehbaz in NA speech​

Speaking in the National Assembly after losing the election for prime minister, Omar Ayub Khan lamented the situation of law and order in the country.

He noted that a large percentage of the country’s youth have it imprinted in their minds that the country has been marred with terrorism and violence.

“You talk about rule of law, but you never even enforced rule of law,” he said, addressing points made by Shehbaz Sharif just minutes earlier in his maiden speech as newly elected PM.