Islamabad, Pakistan: The Director General (DG) of Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) of the Pakistan Army Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry held an important media briefing on May 7, 2024, in which important points regarding the challenges faced by the country were discussed.
The tragedy of May 9, 2023, and the false assumptions and narratives spread by politicians about the incidents of May 9 were discussed at length. The anarchist group that planned and launched the May 9 Mutiny spread a description on social media that the May 9 narrative may have ended after the results of the February 8 General Elections. However, a detailed and fact-based statement by DG ISPR to media representatives confirmed the truth of this false narrative.
In the elections, the foremost factors are the family, clan, and outreach of the candidate, the unpopularity of the opponent candidates, and the financial resources to run the campaign
DG ISPR explained in the light of the data that the narrative being made that the results of the February 8 General Elections overturned the results of May 9, when the turnout on February 8 was 47 percent of registered voters.
It is a proven fact in the over 50-year history of Pakistan’s parliamentary system that parties do not win rather the candidates win
Around 60 million voters voted which is also available on the website of the Election Commission of Pakistan. Out of this PTI got 31 percent (around 10.8 million votes). But PTI is busy trying to give the impression that votes might have been cast against the Pakistan Army, which is patently wrong because, in the elections, the foremost factors are the family, clan, and outreach of the candidate, the unpopularity of the opponent candidates and financial resources to run the campaign. Therefore, stating that votes bagged by PTI candidates were against the Pakistan Army is contrary to the realities of South Asia where party factors come at the end while voting for any candidate because many candidates of the same party won and many of the candidates of the same party lost the election. If votes go to a party, then one political party should have all the seats, and the other parties should lose all the seats. It is a proven fact that the family background that is called Baradari System is very strong in Pakistan and voters mostly poll their vote to a particular candidate who is backed by the respective Baradari. This is the unfortunate reality that political parties always prefer “winning horses” or what is called “electable” when giving tickets to candidates.
Therefore, it is a proven fact in the over 50-year history of Pakistan’s parliamentary system that in Pakistan parties do not win rather the candidates win. The majority of those who voted for PTI also respect and honor the Pakistan Army and the martyrs of Pakistan like every Pakistani, but PTI tries unsuccessfully to give this impression the vote it got is a vote against the Pakistan Army which is contrary to the realities of election process of Pakistan. Moreover in the General Elections of 2024, parties that were part of the PDM government faced a crisis because of its failed 16-month rule and bad selection of candidates, particularly in Punjab and KPK provinces. Moreover, the overconfident candidates of a certain party did not run their campaign as they should have been, resulting they failed to pull their voters to polling stations.
The spokesperson of the Pakistan Army rightly indicated that the assumption was incorrect that whoever voted for PTI basically supported the May 9 vandalism and the army should have been attacked. He added that after the February 8 elections, many surveys were conducted at the national and international levels, such as the IPSOS survey, where a large number of people clearly expressed their full confidence in the Pakistan Army and all such surveys negate the narrative that PTI is trying to build that it got votes because its voters voted against Pakistan Army.
