Experts Say Independent Candidates May Face Legal, Constitutional Challenges Despite Win

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Feb, 2024) The independent candidates backed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf are likely to face legal and constitutional challenges to form the government despite winning seats in the general elections, experts have said.

Advocate Syed Noman Bukhari, senior legal and constitutional expert told APP on Saturday that under the law, the independent candidates after winning elections were required to join a political party within a specified period and form government.

In the 2018 election, he said, several independent candidates of the KP Assembly joined the Balochistan Awami Party and joined the coalition government of PTI.

Noman Bukhari said that joining a political party by independent candidates was a legal requirement to obtain perks and privileges besides women-reserved seats.

Meanwhile, PTI leader Taimur Salim Jhagra told reporters here that consultation on all issues including legal and constitutional obstacles had been started and all decisions would be taken with consultation by the political leadership.

PTI-backed candidates have obtained a maximum number of seats from Peshawar, Nowshera, Abbottabad, Swat, Charsadda, Swabi, Chitral, Bannu, Mohmand, Khyber and Mardan.

In Peshawar, PTI-backed independent candidates won four seats out of five of the National Assembly and six out of 13 Provincial Assembly seats.

Political stalwarts that lost the election 2024 include PTI Parliamentarians Chairman Pervez Khattak on NA-23 Nowshera-I, KP PMLN Information Secretary Ikhtair Wali Khan, former Environment Minister Wajid Ali Khan in Swat, JIP Central Ameer Maulana Sirajul Haq.

Professor Dr A.H. Hilali, Chairman Political Science Department at the University of Peshawar told APP that the participation of large numbers of voters in the 2024 election reflected the people's unshakable trust in the electoral process.

He said the 2024 election results signified the diverse polity and pluralism in the country that would be well-represented by a unified government of all democratic forces imbibed with a national purpose to take the country forward on the road to progress and development.

He said elections were not a zero-sum competition of winning and losing, but an exercise to determine the mandate of the people.

He said political leadership and their workers should rise above self-interests and synergise efforts in governing and serving the people which is perhaps the only way to make democracy functional and purposeful.

Professor Hilali said that young voters have played a significant role in deciding the fate of the contesting candidates during the 2024 election.

He said that contest of 17,816 independent and party-affiliated candidates for 265 National Assembly, 296 Punjab Assembly, 130 Sindh Assembly, 113 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and 51 Balochistan seats — a total of 85 demonstrated their commitment to serve their countrymen.

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2/10/2024 4:01:41 PM