Islamabad, Feb 12 (PTI) Taking responsibility for the poor performance of their parties in the February 8 polls, Pakistan's IPP chief Jahangir Khan Tareen and PTI-P central chairman Pervez Khattak on Monday announced their decision to quit politics while JI chief Sirajul Haq said he would resign his party chief position.
The decision by Tareen of Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP), Khattak of Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaaf-Parliamentarian (PTI-P), and Haq of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) came as their parties witnessed significant drubbing in the general elections.
"I would like to thank everyone who supported me in this election and want to offer my congratulations to my opponents. I have immense respect for the will of the people of Pakistan. Therefore, I have decided to resign from my position as Chairman of IPP and step away from politics altogether," Tareen said in a post on X.
"My gratitude to all the members of IPP. I wish them the absolute best. By the Grace of Allah, I will continue to serve my country to the best of my ability in a private capacity," he added.
Tareen, 70, an influential politician who was once a close aide of incarcerated former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, has faced humiliation in the elections as his newly-formed party grabbed only two National Assembly (NA) and one provincial assembly seats.
Meanwhile, Pervez Khattak, 74, chief of his breakaway faction of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, PTI-Parliamentarians, has also resigned from his party position, saying that he is “taking a break” from politics for now, The Express Tribune reported.
The development comes as his party has been wiped out from Pakistan’s political scene after it failed to win even a single seat.
During canvassing, Khattak had made bold claims that he would be the next chief minister of K-P and that the PTI-backed independents would also align with him after winning.
Khattak’s two sons and a son-in-law were contesting from all seven seats in Nowshera, but couldn’t win any one of these, the report said.
On Monday, JI's Haq also announced that he is stepping down from his position of the party chief as he took responsibility for the party's bad performance in the polls.
In a separate post on X, Siraj, 61, said, "I accept responsibility for the election defeat and have resigned from the post of party ameer."
The resignation by the Jamaat chief comes after the party failed to secure any National Assembly seats and only secured three seats in the Sindh and Balochistan assemblies, one of which was vacated earlier on Monday by JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman.
Pakistan's election commission on Monday released the full results of the controversy-marred general elections, giving the preliminary position of all political parties in the national and provincial assemblies.