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Tag: Pakistan election results

  • Army Chief Backs Nawaz Sharif’s Call For Coalition Government As Pakistan Faces Hung Parliament | world news

    New Delhi: As the general elections in Pakistan resulted in no clear majority for any party, the country’s army chief Gen Asim Munir on Saturday supported former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s proposal to form a coalition government with other democratic forces. Sharif, who has the backing of the Pakistan Army, made the appeal on Friday to overcome the economic and political challenges facing the country. He is a three-time former prime minister and leads the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, which secured 73 seats in the National Assembly.

    The largest share of 102 seats went to independents allied with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of Imran Khan, another former prime minister who is currently in jail. Khan’s party has declared victory in the elections.

    Other parties that won seats in the National Assembly are the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) with 54, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) with 17 and 11 seats for smaller parties. The Election Commission of Pakistan announced the results of 257 seats out of 265. One seat was not contested due to the death of a candidate.

    A party needs 133 seats out of 265 to form a government in the National Assembly. A simple majority of 169 seats out of 336, including the reserved seats for women and minorities, is also required.

    The general election was marred by accusations of rigging, violence and a nationwide mobile phone blackout. The counting of votes is still ongoing. In a statement on Saturday, Gen Munir said that a unified government of all democratic forces would reflect the diversity and pluralism of Pakistan.

    He said that the purpose of elections and democracy was to serve the people of Pakistan and not to create winners and losers. The Pakistan Army, which has ruled the country for more than half of its 75 years of history, has a strong influence on security and foreign policy matters.

    He said that Pakistan needed a stable and healing leadership to move away from the politics of chaos and division that was not suitable for a progressive country of 250 million people. He said that elections were a way to determine the will of the people and not a zero-sum game.

    He also said that the people of Pakistan had shown their trust in the Constitution of Pakistan and it was the duty of all political parties to respond with political maturity and unity.

    On the other hand, Khan, 71, claimed victory in the general elections in an AI-generated audio-video message on Saturday. He thanked the people for voting for PTI and urged them to protect the integrity of their votes from the establishment.

  • Imran Khan’s PTI To Hold Protests Over ‘Rigging’, Delay In Pakistan’s Election Result. world news

    New Delhi: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced that it will stage ‘peaceful protests’ across the country on Sunday to demand the timely announcement of the election results and to safeguard the vote, as independent candidates are ahead with 100. seats. The decision was taken after the party’s core committee met and discussed the election results and the next steps. The core committee also talked about the possible alliances with other political parties.

    The party said that important decisions were made during the meeting, which would be finalized after consulting with PTI founder Imran Khan. The PTI said that the people had expressed their choice in a peaceful and constitutional way, and now it was time to defend their mandate.

    ARY News reported that the results of 257 out of the 265 National Assembly seats where elections were held had been declared, which showed that the independent candidates had the most seats with 100. The PML-N and PPP had 73 and 54 seats, respectively.

    The Muttahida Qaumi Movement had 17 seats, while the PML-Q had three. The JUI-F and Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) had three and two seats, respectively. MWM and BNP had one seat each. (ANI) In addition, independent candidates backed by PTI have filed petitions in the high courts, alleging that the polls were rigged.

    Independent candidates affiliated with PTI also challenged the results of PP-164 and NA-118 in the Lahore High Court (LHC), where PML-N leaders Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz won.

    Dr Yasmeen Rashid also contested the victory of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in NA-130 in Lahore in the LHC.

    Another independent candidate, Shehzad Farooq, disputed the win of Maryam Nawaz in NA-119 in Lahore, while PTI-supported independent candidate Zaheer Abbas Khokhar challenged the win of PML-N candidate Ata Tarar in NA-127.

    Rehana Dar, the mother of Usman Dar, asked the high court to recount the votes in NA-71 in Sialkot, where PML-N veteran Khawaja Asif won.

  • Pakistan Elections: Re-Polling Ordered At Several Booths Amid ‘Rigging’ Claims | world news

    New Delhi: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided to conduct re-elections at various polling places across the country after verifying complaints of voting material being snatched and damaged, as reported by Geo News. The election authority is in the last phase of announcing the results vote as the compilation process has been going on for 48 hours, after overcoming all the challenges in holding nationwide elections on February 8.

    Geo News reported that the commission acted on the complaints from different parts of the country about incidents of voting material being snatched and damaged at various polling stations, which led the local election officials to suspend the voting processes. The top electoral body has recently announced that re-polling will be held at multiple polling stations on February 15.

    The results from these polling stations will be declared after the re-polling event is over. The following is the list of constituencies and the number of polling stations where re-polling was ordered, according to Geo News.

    NA-88 Khushab-II – Punjab Re-polling will be done at 26 polling stations after voting materials were destroyed by a mob of angry people

    PS-18 Ghotki-I –Sinh Re-polling will take place in two polling stations of the constituency after voting material was snatched by unknown individuals on February 8.

    PK-90 Kohat-I – Khyber Pakhtunkhwa The ECP has ordered re-polling at 25 polling stations in the constituency due to voting material being damaged by terrorists on election day.

    The electoral body has also asked the regional election commissioner to submit a probe report within three days about the complaints of vandalism at a polling station in NA-242 Karachi Keamari-I-Sindh.

    Earlier, several parties with previous parliamentary roles had expressed doubts about the reliability of the results due to delays, despite the election commission’s assurances of releasing the official results on time. Both the caretaker government and the top electoral body have denied the allegations of intentional delay in compiling and releasing the final results.

  • Pakistan Election Results: Army Magic? Nawaz Sharif’s Big Win Claim After Imran Khan Alleges Rigging | world news

    New Delhi: Nawaz Sharif, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, on Friday appealed to other political parties to come together and form a stable coalition government to restore Pakistan, saying all institutions should cooperate to help the country overcome its challenges. Sharif, who served as the premier three times, spoke to his supporters of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) at the party’s headquarters in Lahore. He said his party respects the verdict of all parties, including the independent candidates who are backed by the imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party.

    He said it was necessary for all the political parties to join hands and form a government to bring Pakistan out of its troubles. “We cannot keep having elections,” he said. “We were all together yesterday but we did not speak to you because the results were not out.”

    “We are asking everyone today to join us in rebuilding this wounded Pakistan,” he said as the country seemed to be heading towards a hung parliament. “Our only goal is a prosperous Pakistan and you know what we have done in the past.”

    He said all the institutions should work together to help Pakistan get out of this crisis. “Everyone should sit in peace and harmony and take Pakistan out of the difficulties,” he said.

    Sharif said he has assigned his younger brother and PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif to contact the Pakistan Peoples’ Party’s Asif Ali Zardari, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) chief Fazlur Rehman and Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui to form a coalition government. .

    The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) data shows that results of 139 constituencies have been announced, which include 55 independents (mostly supported by PTI), PML-N 43, PPP 35 and other seats going to smaller parties.

    The counting of votes is still ongoing after Thursday’s general election which was tainted by accusations of rigging, occasional violence and a nationwide mobile phone blackout.

    To form a government, a party must secure 133 seats out of 265 in the National Assembly. One seat’s election was delayed after the death of a candidate. Overall, 169 seats are required to obtain a simple majority out of its total 336 seats, which include the reserved seats for women and minorities.

    Sharif Has Pak Army’s Blessing

    The Pakistan Army has a strong influence on the country’s politics and has been accused of tampering with elections to favor its preferred candidates. In 2018, the Pakistan Army effectively selected Imran Khan, a former cricketer-turned-politician, to replace Nawaz Sharif as the head of the PML(N).

    Imran Khan became the prime minister after Nawaz Sharif was convicted, but Nawaz Sharif was later allowed to leave the country and returned in October 2023, when suddenly all the charges against him were dropped. Experts have suggested that Nawaz Sharif has the army’s backing this time. In the Pakistan election 2024, Pakistan Army chief general Asim Munir will consolidate his power over the political leadership of the country. The elections are significant as for the first time in Pakistan’s history, a civilian leader (Imran Khan) posed a threat to the army’s supremacy.

    Former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria told news agency ANI that the elections are the most rigged and the most predictable, because the army is meddling with the process to get the government it wants. He said that it is widely anticipated that Nawaz Sharif and his PML-N party will be the army’s pick. He said that this is quite accurate.