Imran Khan's party to sit in Opposition in National Assembly and Punjab province

Pakistan's jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's PTI party on Friday announced that it will sit in the Opposition in the National Assembly and the Punjab Provincial Assembly.

The decision was announced by Barrister Ali Saif of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), a day after the party had named Umar Ayub Khan as its candidate for the prime minister and Aslam Iqbal as chief minister for Punjab.

Talking to the media after visiting the Qaumi Watan Party in Islamabad, Saif said that the party decided to sit in the opposition in the Centre and Punjab in accordance with instructions of party founder Imran Khan.

“We decided to sit in opposition despite the reality that if we received seats according to our votes and the results were not changed then maybe today we might have been in the Centre with 180 seats. Form 45 is the evidence that our candidates won,” he said.

It was not clear if the party would participate in the election of the prime minister and Punjab chief minister after the decision to join the opposition ranks.

Pakistan received a fractured mandate in the February 8 general polls.

The PTI-supported independent candidates secured 92 seats, while Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Peoples Party secured 75 and 54 seats respectively.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)