'No horse-trading': Achakzai accepts defeat, congratulates Zardari on winning presidential race

• Achakzai urges collaboration amongst parties in national interests.
• PTI-SIC candidate opposes taking parliamentary conflicts to judiciary.
• Ready to render any sacrifice for sanctity of parliament: PkMAP chief.

As presidential election results poured in from all legislative assemblies, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) candidate Mahmood Khan Achakzai on Saturday expressed his views that the country has witnessed “first of its kind of poll” for the coveted post without “horse-trading” in which he contested joint candidate of ruling coalition — Asif Ali Zardari.

Accepting his defeat against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) nominee Zardari in the presidential race, Achakzai told reporters that it was a unique election in which “horse-trading” was not witnessed.

He congratulated Zardari on becoming the president of Pakistan for a second term and termed it the “beginning of a new era” as it was a “rare” poll which was held in a good environment.

He also thanked the PTI-backed lawmakers for voting in his support, however, he specifically complained about the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and the National Party (NP) for not casting their votes despite announcing to sit in the opposition.

“In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), all 90 lawmakers voted for me. The PTI lawmakers cast their ballots for me in the presence of cameras. A good trend has been set [...] next matters would be discussed in the parliament,” said Achakzai.

He criticised Dr Abdul Malik for promising to vote for him and backtracking later.

“We have to respect the decision of the nation that voted for one party. We [political parties] also have to support each other,” the politico said, however, he opposed taking parliamentary conflicts to the judiciary.

At the conclusion of the key electoral event, Achakzai urged for collaboration amongst parties in the national interests in testing times.

To a question regarding JUI-F’s decision to not take part in the presidential poll, Achakzai replied that Maulana Fazlur Rehman has seemingly fallen asleep.

The PTI-SIC candidate said that the incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan was his friend since the formation of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). He detailed that overall 36 parties, including PTI had gathered and discussed the “charter of democracy”.

“However, I took parliament’s side after distancing myself from the PTI founder after an attack on the parliament, and other events,” Achakzai said while pointing towards May 9 riots without mentioning them.

He added that he is ready to render any sacrifice for the sanctity of the parliament.

The politician said that nobody could oppose the fact that the Imran-founded party won several seats in the general elections 2024. He stressed finding a constitutional solution to allocate reserved seats to the PTI-backed candidates, and refrain from exercising any illegal move which deprives constitutional rights of the women, and minorities for their representation in the assemblies.

Zardari became the only civilian president to be elected for a historic second time after bagging 411 votes from the electoral college, beating Achakzai who received 181 votes.