ISLAMABAD: To form a government at the centre in Islamabad, a political party or alliance needs to win at least 50 percent of seats a the National Assembly in the general elections. But in the May 11, 2013 polls, Imran Khan’s PTI — now demanding the prime minister’s resignation by making big allegations of rigging without any evidence — was almost non-existent in 50 percent of the constituencies.
PTI’s security deposits were confiscated in 93 National Assembly constituencies and Imran Khan failed to post any candidate in 40 constituencies, meaning the PTI was almost non-existent in exactly 133 NA constituencies making up about half of the 272 total National Assembly constituencies.
In his speech, while concluding the historic joint session of parliament on Friday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that the security deposits of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were confiscated in 55 National Assembly constituencies, whereas factually the PTI’s deposits were confiscated in 93 NA constituencies and the party failed to field any candidate in 40 constituencies.
Polling agents of the PTI in different polling stations across the country properly signed the results at their polling stations and the results of the concerned constituencies were consolidated and finalised on the basis of those results. So far, the PTI can’t level a single allegation of which constituency the consolidated results were having discrepancies or difference with those signed by its polling agents. The party and its chief are merely dancing to the tunes of those who want to grab power once again and to stop Chinese investment and create a Balochistan-like situation in the rest of the three provinces.
On May 11, 2013, polls were not held in NA-38, NA-83 and NA-254, so these constituencies are not included in this comprehensive study and data is analysed for the remaining 269 constituencies. During by-elections on two of these three constituencies, the PTI’s performance was worse and its security deposit was confiscated even in by-polls in NA-254, Karachi. The PTI has termed by-polls as fully transparent in an official statement.
According to existing election laws, the security deposit of a candidate is confiscated if he fails to secure less than 12.5 percent of the total validly casted votes. This study is on the basis of this rule. Otherwise, there was a suggestion before the May 2013 elections that security deposit should be confiscated if a candidate secures less than 20 percent of total votes. Had that suggestion been accepted, the PTI would have been non-existent in more than 70 percent of constituencies as its candidates secured considerable votes only in some KP constituencies and a handful of urban constituencies in Sindh and Punjab. In many constituencies, PTI even failed to secure 1 percent of the votes.
Following are brief details of 93 National Assembly constituencies where security deposits of PTI candidates were confiscated as they failed to secure even 12.5 percent of the total votes.
In NA-22, 71,236 votes were cast, 1,370 votes were secured by PTI, which are 1.92% of the total cast votes. Similarly, NA-24, 220,433, 21,394, 9.70%, NA-27, 170625, 18405, 10.78%, NA-31, 92744, 6120, 6.59%, NA-36, 53017, 1795, 3.38%, NA-37, 93968, 294, 0.31%, NA-39, 47602, 3805, 7.99%, NA-40, 77113, 8239, 10.68%, NA-41, 37461, 667, 1.78%, NA-44, 58959, 7069, 11.98%, NA-64, 238820, 11813, 4.94%, NA-65, 189710, 8885, 4.68%, NA-67, 222840, 7011, 3.14%, NA-74, 246463, 6199, 2.51%, NA-76, 185170, 17758, 9.59%, NA-77, 175444, 10444, 5.95%, NA-78, 177008, 11297, 6.38%, NA-79, 192563, 22420, 11.64%, NA-80, 205706, 25015, 12.16%, NA-89, 168977, 8236, 4.87%, NA-90, 152655, 1890, 1.23%, NA-92, 216146, 12248, 5.66%, NA-98, 201776, 20778, 10.29%, NA-99, 179614, 20212, 11.25%, NA-100, 184883, 6490, 3.51%, NA-101, 198457, 11592, 5.84%, NA-102, 173811, 5653, 3.25%, NA-104, 200095, 19318, 9.65%, NA-108, 239629, 25406, 10.60%, NA-109, 210501, 13813, 6.56%, NA-114, 212753, 18535, 8.71%, NA-115, 142358, 13369, 9.39%, NA-116, 146223, 9108, 6.22%, NA-132, 160238, 16467, 10.27%, NA-134, 146443, 14131, 9.64%, NA-137, 169065, 8896, 5.26%, NA-138, 182053, 13127, 7.21%, NA-139, 182988, 21725, 11.87%, NA-141, 187800, 11989, 6.38%, NA-142, 173646, 18325, 10.55%, NA-144, 169090, 18648, 11.02%, NA-145, 170939, 12319, 7.20%, NA-146, 163583, 11999, 7.33%, NA-147, 158404, 8195, 5.17%, NA-153, 211229, 18155, 8.59%, NA-156, 186878, 20837, 11.15%, NA-163, 174115, 16311, 9.36%, NA-171, 184298, 17514, 9.5%, NA-174, 211060, 6964, 3.29%, NA-175, 214671, 13805, 6.43%, NA-176, 205915, 10840, 5.26%, NA-177, 221919, 13757, 6.19%, NA-179, 205008, 9476, 4.62%, NA-180, 182206, 2555, 1.40%, NA-181, 229376, 20699, 9.02%, NA-182, 262364, 32212, 12.27%, NA-183, 158921, 197, 0.12%, NA-187, 184456, 360, 0.19%, NA-188, 206464, 1897, 0.91%, NA-191, 206143, 6653, 3.22%, NA-192, 191424, 16426, 8.58%, NA-193, 159044, 17158, 10.78%, NA-194, 162946, 15837, 9.71%, NA-195, 167340, 18347, 10.96%, NA-198, 126678, 8584, 6.77%, NA-199, 151680, 1272, 0.83%, NA-202, 140412, 2240, 1.59%, NA-204, 134908, 2187, 1.62%, NA-207, 144959, 1290, 0.88%, NA-208, 111131, 7589, 6.82%, NA-210, 99501, 561, 0.56%, NA-212, 189836, 1064, 0.56%, NA-213, 218648, 2520, 1.15%, NA-215, 170509, 1506, 0.88%, NA-216, 172372, 904, 0.52%, NA-221, 139974, 14544, 10.39%, NA-222, 146770, 1499, 1.02%, NA-223, 184578, 1486, 0.80%, NA-224, 207130, 4534, 2.18%, NA-225, 182765, 340, 0.18%, NA-236, 199225, 1395, 0.70%, NA-242, 198288, 10889, 5.49%, NA-243, 241233, 29875, 12.38%, NA-255, 177594, 19033, 10.71%, NA-258, 171331, 17697, 10.32%, NA-260, 169393, 7653, 4.51%, NA-261, 132402, 2920, 2.20%, NA-263, 101703, 3227, 3.17%, NA-264, 92925, 1884, 2.02%, NA-265, 86334, 6037, 6.99%, NA-267, 88280, 95, 0.10%, NA-268, 61826, 575, 0.93%, NA-270, 99860, 1320, 1.32%.
PTI chief Imran Khan who is terming himself as ‘Prime Minister Imran Khan’ nowadays couldn’t even field candidates in the following 40 constituencies: NA-23, NA-55, NA-73, NA-87, NA-88, NA-91, NA-94, NA-103, NA-143, NA-184, NA-185, NA-200, NA-201, NA-203, NA-205, NA-206, NA-209, NA-211, NA-214, NA-217, NA-218, NA-219, NA-220, NA-226, NA-227, NA-229, NA-231, NA-232, NA-234, NA-233, NA-235, NA-237, NA-238, NA-249, NA-257, NA-262, NA-266, NA-269, NA-271, NA-272.
Not only this, among 269 constituencies where polling was held on May 11, 2013, Imran Khan’s PTI fielded 229 candidates of which 202 lost the elections and only 30 candidates filed petitions in election tribunal, meaning exactly 172 candidates were hundred percent sure of their defeat because of public reaction. Very few know that not all the 30 of these petitions were on charges of rigging and a few were against the eligibility of the oppoing candidate.
Now Imran Khan’s PTI, instead of strengthening the party at grassroots level to give better results in the 2018 polls, has started attacking the media, criticising it for becoming a puppet in the hands of secret forces and the party chief declaring himself as prime minister.