According to the most recently published interim result, Sharif’s Muslim League got 61 seats, the independent candidates linked to Khan got 92. However, the latter is in prison and the independents cannot form their own government.
Khan, in a message broadcast on short messaging service
Sharif had previously declared his Muslim League the winner of the election and announced explorations to form a coalition. Khan’s party PTI was excluded from the election. PTI officials wanted to consult Khan in jail on Saturday.
Are troubled times ahead?
With the looming uncertainty over Pakistan’s future government, fears among observers are gaining new ground that the nuclear-armed, economically stricken country is facing turbulent domestic political times.
Sharif has served as Prime Minister of Pakistan three times. After some upheavals, he is now again seen as a favorite of the influential military. At the end of 2023, he returned from self-imposed exile in London and promised to rebuild the South Asian country’s economy. The country is currently led by a caretaker government under a non-party prime minister.
The results of Thursday’s election took an unusually long time to arrive. The election commission attributed this to internet problems. The government pointed out that mobile phone networks had been switched off as a security measure.
Cameron: “Serious doubts about fairness”
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said there were serious doubts about the fairness of the vote. It was regrettable that not all parties were registered and that legal procedures were used to prevent some politicians from running. Former cricket star Khan is in jail on various charges. He was deposed in 2022 by a vote of no confidence and accuses the military of a campaign against himself and his party.
The success of the PTI candidates was unexpected because Pakistan’s judiciary had largely paralyzed the opposition party before the election. According to a ruling by the Supreme Court, members of the PTI were only allowed to run as independent candidates, and their election campaigns were also severely restricted. In the end, Khan’s party supporters had to make do with using artificial intelligence to create campaign speeches by party leader Khan, who was in maximum security prison. Khan, Prime Minister from 2018 until a vote of no confidence in spring 2022, was sentenced to several years in prison on corruption charges, among other things. He himself sees the proceedings as politically motivated to keep him away from power.
Sharif’s party appeared confident of victory on the day of the election and hoped for an absolute majority. According to observers, the PML-N was the electoral favorite of the influential generals. In the country, the powerful military is said to repeatedly influence elections and governments. Sharif’s party wanted to start talks with other parties on Friday.
“Invite everyone to join us”
“I invite all allies to join us in lifting Pakistan out of the current economic mess,” the 74-year-old said during a speech in his hometown of Lahore.
Most recently, Sharif’s party provided the prime minister in a broad government coalition. This also included the People’s Party PPP, which, according to the partial results, came in third place with almost 23 percent of the seats. Its 35-year-old top candidate and short-term Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has government ambitions, but on the evening before the election he initially ruled out any further cooperation with Sharif’s party.
The PML-N and PPP are likely to court the favor of the independent candidates in order to find a majority. Observers did not assume that the PTI-affiliated independents would work together in parliament. Many would be more likely to switch to the camp that has the best prospects of participating in government. This is not unusual in Pakistan – politicians have repeatedly changed their loyalties in the past.
Pakistan’s National Assembly has 336 seats, of which 266 are directly elected. A further 60 seats are reserved for women and 10 for non-Muslims, which are filled according to the strength of the individual parties. With the additional seats, the large established parties are likely to increase their weight in parliament compared to the independents. Independent candidates have 72 hours after the election to join other parties or form their own factions.
Shutdown of mobile networks
Due to internet blackouts on election day and massive delays in counting votes, the PTI complained of manipulation. The Interior Ministry justified the shutdown of the mobile networks with the alleged security for voters.
A long list of challenges awaits the new government. Terrorist attacks, an ailing economy with high inflation of almost 30 percent and the consequences of climate change. The World Bank also recently curbed expectations for the economy of the country with 240 million inhabitants, which has experienced an upswing in recent decades but only recorded minimal growth after the corona pandemic and the devastating floods in the summer of 2022. The country suffers from high levels of social injustice and religious extremism. The population is largely disillusioned by the power struggles of the political leadership.
