Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan arrives at the Lahore High Court to sign bail in various cases. The former prime minister was sentenced to 10 years in prison on January 30, less than two weeks before the election. His party was deprived of the opportunity to participate in the elections. Photo: arif ali/afp
Imran Khan's party has had a surprisingly strong showing in Pakistan's elections. is challenging the country's military, which has been accused of rigging the vote to keep him out of power.
Preliminary results showed high turnout for Khan's candidates, although the former premier and his wife Bushra Bibi were sentenced to seven years in prison after after a district court ruled that their 2018 marriage violated the law. It was the third sentence for Khan and the second for his wife this week.
They were found guilty of fraudulent marriage after Bibi's ex-husband, Khawar Farid Maneka, accused them of marrying without completing iddat — the mandatory waiting period in Islam after divorce — and of adultery almost six years after the divorce.
< p >The army was also believed to have backed his rival Nawaz Sharif.
The surge undermined predictions that Sharif would easily rise to power and rebuked the military establishment accused of orchestrating the vote. v. Mr. Khan.
Majority
Mr Sharif on Friday evening acknowledged that his party had failed to secure an absolute majority and said he would enter into coalition talks with other parties.
Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz was supported by the country's powerful army. Photo: AAMIR QURESHI/AFP
David Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, said there were serious concerns about the integrity of the election.
«We regret that not all parties were officially allowed to stand in the elections and that legal procedures were used to prevent some political leaders from participating, as well as to prevent the use of recognizable party symbols,» Lord Cameron said, adding that the UK also noted restrictions introduced. on Internet access on election day.
The United States called for an investigation into allegations of election fraud.
“We join credible international and domestic election observers in assessing that this election included undue restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly,” said Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman.
“We Condemn election violence… and are concerned about allegations of interference in the electoral process. Allegations of interference or fraud must be thoroughly investigated.”
A day after polls closed, candidates loyal to Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won about 70 of the more than 200 seats in parliament. National Assembly, consisting of 266 members. Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won by about 60 votes and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) by about 50.
Mr Khan's support came despite a long crackdown against his party, which forced candidates to run as independents. Its workers have complained of arrests and harassment, and the party leadership is either in prison or unable to campaign openly.
But the military, which fell out with Mr Khan when he was prime minister, has struggled to suppress his vote, observers say.
“Even if the PTI fails to form a government, the elections show that there is the limits of political engineering,” said Bilal Gilani, executive director of the polling group Gallup Pakistan.
“This shows that the military doesn't always get its way — that's a positive thing,” he told AFP.< /p>Results
The first incomplete results after polls closed on Thursday evening hinted at strong support for the PTI. Results slowed to a crawl overnight, leading to accusations that the counting process was being slowed down so that results could be manipulated.
PTI's Rauf Hasan said election results in 50 constituencies were changed after his party's strong showing was evident.
He said pro-Sharif authorities had underestimated public support for Khan.
He said pro-Sharif authorities had underestimated public support for Khan.
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He said: “They have misinterpreted it again and again and again.”
“They misinterpreted Khan's determination, resilience and determination. Now they had misjudged Khan's popularity.
“They kept saying that people weren't coming out. But they were waiting for the day when they could go out and vote, and they did it, and it was a big surprise for them.”
Coalition
He said the PTI will not enter into coalition talks. , even if it meant Sharif came to power. He said there would also be no calls for street protests, but the party's candidates would take their seats in the National Assembly and challenge the election results in court.
The surprisingly close result and a new era of coalition government are expected to usher in a renewal trade and unrest in a country that had been paralyzed by political intrigue for two years.
Mr Khan was once the party's favorite. military man but was ousted as prime minister in 2022 after clashes with generals over the appointment of the country's top spy.
Since then, he has faced a barrage of criminal cases that he says are politically motivated and received several prison sentences.
However, his insistence that he was overthrown as a result of a foreign-backed conspiracy to oppose America gave him the mantle of a political martyr and enormous grassroots support.
p >Political turmoil has left the country unable to implement reforms needed to combat a severe economic crisis and soaring inflation.
Farzana Sheikh of the London think tank Chatham House said Mr Khan's popularity was likely to decline. partly it was a protest against the PML-N's mismanagement of the economy, but he added: “I am still deeply, deeply concerned about what this will mean for Pakistan going forward because there is no end in sight to the instability.”
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