PM-elect Imran Khan thanks nation as PTI moves closer to forming government
Islamabad, July 27 : Former Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan on Thursday claimed victory in his country's parliamentary elections, promising a new Pakistan following a vote that was marred by allegations of fraud and militant violence.
Khan, who is set to become the next Prime Minister, said in a televised address to the nation that "thanks to God, we won and we were successful".
"If God wills, we will set an example," he said.
Pakistan's election commission has not yet released official final results, but Khan has maintained a commanding lead, according to projections by many television stations. It was still unclear, however, if his Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will win a simple majority or have to form a coalition government.
Election officials said an official count confirming Pakistan's next government was expected in the early hours of Friday. More than a dozen TV channels projected, based on undisclosed methodologies, that PTI would get as many as 119 seats of the 270 national assembly seats contested. A majority of 137 seats is needed to form a government.
Before even half the votes were counted, Khan's leading rival, Shahbaz Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), the party of the jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, rejected the vote, generating fears that disgruntled losers could delay the formation of the next government.
In a tweet, he said the party had rejected the results "due to manifest and massive irregularities".
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also said he had not received any official results from any constituency where he was contesting, despite it being past midnight.
"My candidates (have been) complaining (that) polling agents have been thrown out of polling stations across the country. Inexcusable and outrageous," he tweeted.
Addressing the concerns of opposition parties regarding rigging, Imran Khan assured that "these have been the cleanest elections in Pakistan's history".
"I will fully cooperate in scrutinising as many constituencies as opposition parties want," he added.
In Punjab, with preliminary results from polling stations available with the ECP, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is currently holding its lead on 123 provincial seats but PTI is closing in with a lead on 122 seats.
Imran Khan's party is clearly steering ahead in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with a lead on 67 seats against Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), which is currently leading on nine seats.
The preliminary results from Sindh show PPP-P leading on 73 seats, followed by PTI on 22 seats.
In Balochistan, the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) is leading on 12 provincial seats, followed by the Balochistan National Party (BNP) on eight seats.
Counting is still going on at the polling stations of different constituencies.
According to PTV news, Imran Khan won all his seats he contested from including one in Islamabad against PML-N's Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. The PTI chief was pitted against former Pakistani Prime Minister Abbasi in the crucial National Assembly seat.
The voter turnout was recorded at 50-55 per cent of the nearly 106 million electorate, similar to the previous electoral contest in 2013.
A delay was reported in the transmission of election results due to the breaking down of the Election Commission of Pakistan's Results Transmission System (RTS), which is being run through a software powered by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).
Election Commission secretary Babar Yaqoob flatly denied allegations of vote count manipulation.
Shortly before Sharif spoke, state television said that just one-fifth of the votes had been counted so far -- an unusually slow count that further fuelled suspicions of rigging.
Yaqoob said the vote-counting system, which was untested, had "crashed", adding: "There is definitely no conspiracy, no one wants to influence the results".
As many as 12,570 candidates were in the electoral fray for a total of 849 seats of national and provincial assemblies in the country's 11th general election.
Millions of Pakistanis stepped out to cast their ballot in Wednesday's cliffhanger election, including women in areas where they previously stood disenfranchised.
Polling began at 8 a.m. across the country's 85,307 polling stations and continued until 6 p.m., despite calls by several major parties, including PML-N, PPP and PTI, to extend the polling time by an hour.
The election campaign was marred by violence with three candidates killed in targetted attacks in the run-up to the polls, and culminated with a suicide blast outside a polling station in Quetta which claimed at least 31 lives.
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SC should take cognisance: Priyanka on Sambhal issue
New Delhi (PTI): In the wake of violence in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday accused the Yogi Adityanath government of creating divisions while sitting in power and urged the Supreme Court to take cognisance of the matter and deliver justice.
Three people were killed and scores of others, including security and administration personnel, injured as protesters opposing a court-ordered survey of a Mughal-era mosque in Sambhal clashed with police on Sunday.
In a post in Hindi on X, Priyanka Gandhi said, "The attitude of the state government regarding the sudden dispute in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, is very unfortunate. The way the administration acted in haste in such a sensitive matter without listening to the other side, without taking both the parties into confidence, shows that the government itself spoiled the atmosphere there."
The administration did not even consider it necessary to follow the necessary procedure and duty, the Congress general secretary said.
"Trying to spread discrimination, oppression and division while sitting in power is neither in the interest of the people nor in the interest of the country. The honourable Supreme Court should take cognisance of the matter and do justice," Priyanka Gandhi said.
"My appeal to the people of the state is to maintain peace in all circumstances," she asserted.
The district administration has imposed prohibitory orders and barred the entry of outsiders till November 30 following Sunday's violence.
Deputy Inspector General of Police (Moradabad) Muniraj told reporters on Monday that Naeem, Bilal and Nauman -- the three men who died in Sunday's violence -- had been buried. All three were aged about 25.
Divisional Commissioner (Moradabad) Aunjaneya Kumar Singh said on Sunday, "Shots were fired by miscreants... the PRO of the superintendent of police suffered a gunshot to the leg, the circle officer was hit by pellets and 15 to 20 security personnel were injured in the violence."
A constable also suffered a serious head injury while the deputy collector fractured his leg, he had said.
Internet services were soon suspended in Sambhal tehsil for 24 hours and the district administration declared a holiday in all schools for Monday.
The Congress on Sunday alleged that the Adityanath administration was squarely responsible for killing innocents and only the BJP-RSS was guilty of "setting fire" to peace and harmony in Sambhal.
The opposition party had said the videos of direct firing on the protesters depicted the horrifying result of a "well-planned conspiracy" by Adityanath and the BJP-RSS.
