Imran Khan’s independent candidates are unable to form a government despite winning a majority of seats in Pakistan’s elections.
In this situation, Pakistan Muslim League (PMLN) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which are in the second and third positions in the elections, have agreed to cooperate with each other in forming the coalition government.
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s PMLN and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari-led PPP have said in a statement that they plan to work together to bring political stability to the country.
If they eventually form a coalition government, it could upset Imran Khan’s supporters.
Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has been barred from contesting this year’s elections. Therefore, most of the candidates of the party have elected as independent candidates.
Earlier, Imran’s supporters gathered in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi after police fired tear gas to disperse them.
The final results of Pakistan’s elections show that independent candidates have won 101 seats out of the total number of seats in the country’s National Assembly.
Analysis shows that 93 of these winning candidates are supporters of Imran Khan’s party PTI.
On the other hand, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s party Pakistan Muslim League won 75 seats and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s party Pakistan Peoples Party got 54 seats.
The party formed a coalition in 2022 to oust Imran Khan from power after two no-confidence motions and ruled the country until last August.
Karachi-based political party Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) also won a significant number of seats in this election. They got a total of 17 seats. So this party can also play a role in forming the coalition government.
In this situation, Imran Khan’s party PTI and Nawaz Sharif’s party PMLN – both say that they want to form the next government of Pakistan.
But it is true that the results of this year’s elections in Pakistan have surprised everyone. Because most observers were thinking that Sharif’s party PMLN would win the election. Because the strong army of the country has the support of him.
On the other hand, Imran was jailed on charges ranging from corruption to illegal marriage. Even party candidates were not allowed to contest on their party’s election symbol.
Now to form the government a party has to show that the coalition it leads has 169 seats in the National Assembly. Out of the 366 seats in the National Assembly of Pakistan, representatives of 266 seats are elected through direct voting.
Out of this there are 70 reserved seats, of which 60 are for women and 10 are for non-Muslims.
In fact, these reserved seats are distributed depending on the number of seats a party has in the National Assembly.
However, according to Pakistan’s rules, independent candidates cannot contribute to the distribution of reserved seats in the National Assembly.
In this situation, some other parties including PTI have called for protest against the election results. They allege that the election has been rigged.
On Sunday, protesters were stopped when they tried to move towards the Election Commission building in Rawalpindi.
The police blocked the road leading to the building with barbed wire and big trucks so that they could not go towards the election commission building in any way.
As a result none of the protestors could enter the election commission building in the end.
However, hundreds of protesters gathered in the surrounding streets and chanted slogans for about an hour and a half. In this situation, the police dispersed them by using several rounds of tear gas.
Earlier, police in Pakistan’s Punjab province said Section 144 had been imposed there. It was originally a colonial-era law that, after being promulgated, allowed no more than four people to live together.
The ban was in place until February 12 before the elections.
Worried about ‘fake votes’, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman has called for a peaceful protest outside the Election Commission office by the party’s supporters.
Local Pakistani media reported that the PTI had claimed that election officials rigged the results of at least 18 constituencies.
Experts fear that Pakistan may become “politically unstable for a long time” in this situation.
Dr. Chatham House think tank. Farzana Sheikh said that it is almost impossible to allow independent candidates who support Imran to form the government. On the other hand, many fear that any alliance between Sharif and the PPP would be a “weak and unstable alliance”.
Already, at least six PTI-backed candidates, who did not win this year’s elections, have initiated legal action in court to change the results of their constituencies.
One of them is Yasmin Rashid, who stood against Sharif in Lahore. They filed a complaint of electoral vote rigging in a specific form.
However, Pakistani officials have denied any wrongdoing.On the other hand, Nawaz Sharif’s party Pakistan Muslim League has also reportedly formed a legal team to fight the allegations of vote rigging.
