Opposition mulls joint strategy after Imran’s PTI emerges as largest party

KARACHI: Most of the main political parties in Pakistan have expressed serious concerns over the conduct of the general elections and the delay in the announcement of the results. Several party leaders said that they plan to call an All Parties Conference (APC) to discuss allegations of rigging and decide on a joint course of action.
Election Commission of Pakistan secretary Babar Yaqoob said on Thursday, the day after the election, that the delay was caused by technical failures in an electronic system that transmits results, and the counting was now being conducted manually. He added that full results would be released as soon as possible but could not give a time frame.
Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) appears to be in a commanding position in the center, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the coastal city of Karachi. Unofficial preliminary results suggest PTI has won or is ahead in about 120 national seats, 113 in the Punjab assembly, 18 in the Sindh assembly and 55 in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly. In Punjab, PTI is neck-and-neck with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and might emerge in a position to form a provincial government in a coalition with independents.
In Balochistan, where PTI looks to have won only three provincial assembly seats, the newly formed Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and the Balochistan National Party (BNP) emerged as the largest parties.
In his victory speech on Thursday, Khan, the PTI leader and prime minister-in-waiting, rejected the widespread claims of poll rigging but added: “Anyone who has issues of rigging, we will facilitate and we will open up any constituency that you want for investigation. When we asked for probes, we were not facilitated but now we will do it differently.”
Khan, who won all five national assembly seats he was contesting, said he was happy with the outcome and urged all sides to unite for the good of Pakistan.
However, the delay in announcing the results, the poor performance of Khan’s rivals, and claims that polling agents of some political parties were thrown out of polling stations without the required election paperwork have angered many of PTI’s rivals, including outgoing ruling party PML-N, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), MMA, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the Pak Sarzameen Party, the BNP and other small political groups.
PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who lost two out of three constituencies he contested, including his party’s political fortress of Lyari, condemned the delay in announcing the results.
“It’s now past midnight and I haven’t received official results from any constituency I am contesting myself,” he said, adding that polling agents for his party’s candidates “have been thrown out of polling stations across the country. Inexcusable and outrageous.”
PPP senators Mian Raza Rabbani and Sherry Rehman held a late night press conference during which they said there were serious question marks over the credibility of the election process.
MMA President Maulana Fazlur Rehman — who faced defeat in both of his national assembly seats, including his home constituency — said that ‘rigged results’ will not be accepted. He added that his alliance would call an APC on Friday.
PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, who visited his brother, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Adiala prison on Thursday, before presiding over a party meeting in Lahore, said the credibility of the polling process was in question. He also said that he will call an APC to discuss the rigging allegations and decide on joint course of action.
Senator Mushahidullah Khan, the central spokesman for PML-N, said that although his party was not in favor of sit-ins it would not concede to PTI after “countrywide foul play.”
“The president of PML-N, Shehbaz Sharif, has decided to summon an all parties’ conference for a joint strategy against the shame election,” he confirmed.
Raza Haroon of the Pak Sarzameen Party said it did not receive a single result until Thursday evening.
“Our polling agents were pushed out of the polling stations without handing them form-45, which is a duty of the election commission,” Haroon said, adding that anything can happen to the votes if the polling agents are absent, even for just an hour. “And here, around 20 hours have passed and we haven’t received the results.”
Explaining the process, Haroon said polling agents are required to remain inside the polling station until form-45 is completed, signed and handed over. Form-45 is a document with the name of every candidate along with the number of votes they received, signed by the returning officers and polling staff.
“Not only this but presence of the polling agent is also mandatory at the time when the returning officer announces the results,” he said. “But we were nowhere. Why should we accept these results?”
Haroon, whose party will take part in the APC, said Imran Khan’s assurances of proper investigations will not help as what has been done cannot be undone.
Faisal Subzwari, a senior MQM leader said his party will demand a recount.
“Yes, it’s true that much can be done in the absence of polling agent but recounting will at least fix some of the problem,” he said, adding that his party will mount both legal and political challenges. “We will also mull over whether we should attend the APC. Our mandate has been stolen, first though pre-poll and now after-poll rigging.”
Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman, president of the MMA Karachi chapter, alleged that the elections were massively rigged in favor of PTI. “If pre-poll rigging wasn’t enough to ensure the victory of PTI candidates, results were held up and later announced when these favored the PTI candidates.”
He said his party will not accept a mandate that has been stolen from other political parties.
Yaqoob, the Election Comission secretary, rejected the claims of rigging, saying the elections had been free and fair.
“Elections are delayed across the world but in Pakistan the losing parties always complain,” he said.
While PTI’s Imran Khan (NA-243) and prominent leaders including Dr. Arif Alvi (NA-247), Ali Zaidi (NA-244), Aamir Liaquat Hussain (NA-245) and Faisal Vawda (NA-249) won their seats in Karachi, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (NA-246), and PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif (NA-249), lost their seats in the seaside city.
The most shocking result was in Lyari, a former PPP stronghold, in which PTI’s little-known Abdul Shakoor Shah won NA-246 while PPP chief Zardari could not even finish as a runner-up. Provincial assembly seats PS-107 and 108 were won by candidates for Khadim Hussain Rizvi’s Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan and MMA respectively, ending PPP’s 40-year reign in Lyari.
Among the prominent political figures who could not win in their home constituencies were former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, PPP’s Yousuf Raza Gilani, PTI’s Dr. Yasmeen Rashid, PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif, Miftah Ismail, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Talal Chaudhry, and Abid Sher Ali, MMA President Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of Jamaat-e-Islami Sirajul Haque, former minister Owais Leghari, Awami National Party’s Asfandyar Ali Khan, former interior minister of Balochistan Safraz Bugti, former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, BAP’s Zubaida Jalal and Qaumi Wattan Party’s Aftab Sherpao.