Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders on Friday claimed that their party won 177 National Assembly seats in the February 8 general elections but “through fraud” it was deprived of 85 seats, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Addressing a joint news conference in Islamabad, PTI leader Salman Akram Raja alleged that the election rigging was carried out at the offices of the returning officers in the election 2024. “Normally, one talks of rigging at polling stations where the accusation is that the rival candidates carried out the rigging,” he said.

The PTI leaders during the press conference presented Forms 45 before the international media to show the alleged rigging in the recently-held general elections.

Salman Raja called the election results an assault on the democracy of Pakistan, saying “fictitious Forms 47 were created which had nothing to do with the underlying vote that had been cast on February 8.” He further alleged that the Forms 47 delivered at the RO offices were tampered with and discarded. “Completely fictitious results were created in at least 90 National Assembly constituencies.”

The lawyer said that the election in Pakistan would become a farce if “the state officials responsible for safeguarding the elections can be won over”. “If this is not reversed then it spells death for democracy in Pakistan,” Raja added.

PTI spokesman Raoof Hasan claimed that his party won 177 seats of the National Assembly as he said that the results in Form 47 were in contrast with those of Form 45. He said there was also a huge difference in the number of votes polled for NA and provincial assembly seats. The number of rejected votes, in a few cases, exceeded the margin of victory, he added.

Raoof Hasan said that 2024 would be remembered due to the “biggest voter fraud” in Pakistan’s history against the party and its candidates. “According to our estimates, out of 177 NA seats which were supposed to be ours, only 92 have been given to us. And 85 seats have been taken away from us fraudulently,” he said, adding the party was taking constitutional and legal steps in this regard.

“We have verified data about 46 seats and it is being compiled for 39 seats,” he said. He said that the party had three ways to ascertain alleged rigging in the polls, saying that there were discrepancies between the Form 45 and the Form 47.

He further said that there was also a huge difference in the numbers of votes polled for National Assembly and provincial assembly seats. He said that the number of rejected votes, in certain cases, exceeded the margin of victory.

PTI’s Seemabia Tahir then took the stage and played a video of alleged rigging in the Feb 8 polls.

Usman Dar’s mother Rehana Dar, who contested the Feb 8 polls with the support of the PTI from NA-71, said that she was a housewife who had nothing to do with politics but was compelled to contest the elections.

She alleged that her house was raided on the directives of PML-N’s Khawaja Asif. She said that thousands of “brave sons, mothers and daughters” showed her support in the polls. “The votes were not for me, they were for Imran Khan. The city of Sialkot loves Imran Khan,” she said.

“Contest elections outside. Don’t break doors and disrespect a mother,” she said. “If you want, I am ready to contest the polls again,” she said.

Ayaz Amir, who contested the Feb 8 polls with the support of the PTI, has said: “What were mechanics of rigging in my Chakwal constituency NA-58, one thing done early in the evening was that the office of the returning officer (RO) was sealed.” He said the RO’s office was sealed by the police and the “caretakers of the caretakers”.

He said that he visited the RO office at 6pm on election day but he was kicked out around 7:30-8pm. “Which means that the RO and other people were there and they could do what they wanted,” he said and added, he was in possession of the “original” Form 45 of all polling stations in his constituency.

During the press conference, PTI’s Shandana Gulzar gave a presentation on alleged rigging in the polls. “We got 1.25 million votes in Karachi but we did not get a single seat. Jamaat-e-Islami received 700,000 votes and not a single National Assembly seat in Karachi,” she said.

“In Punjab, we got 13.6m votes and we were given 55 seats. This is a joke with the people of Pakistan,” she said. Showing graphics on a large screen, she said that at 3am on Feb 9, the PTI had won 154 seats in the National Assembly while the PML-N and PPP had won 47 each.

She said that the party was winning 42 seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, of which some were stolen and the party was handed 37. “From Islamabad, we were winning three and all three were stolen from us,” he said. “In Punjab we were winning 115 and 55 were given to us. In Balochistan we were getting four we got one,” she said.

Seemabia Tahir also played a video of alleged rigging in the Feb 8 polls.