In this week’s Parliamentary Elections, the Party of Pakistan‘s imprisoned former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, secured the most seats, sending a powerful message to the nation’s influential Generals and leading to the country’s political order.

Analysts noted that although Military Commanders had thought the poll would stop the political unrest that has engulfed the nation since Mr. Khan’s overthrow in 2022, it has instead thrust it into an even more dire situation. Without the Generals’ support, and especially after confronting their hard fists, no leader in the history of the nation has ever seen such an electoral victory.

According to a report released on Saturday, 10 February 2024, by the country’s Election Commission, candidates from Mr. Khan’s Party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or P.T.I., seemed to win roughly 97 seats in the National Assembly, the Lower House of Parliament, on Thursday, 8 February 2024, during voting. 

According to the Commission, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (P.M.L.N.), the party favored by the military and headed by three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, secured a minimum of 73 seats. There were just seven unaccounted-for seats, which are insufficient to alter the commission’s declared results.

Even though Mr. Khan’s candidates were expected to make up the majority of legislators in Parliament, they were unable to secure a simple majority, which sparked a competition between Mr. Khan’s and Mr. Sharif’s parties to win over additional lawmakers and form a coalition.

In addition, Party Leaders for Mr. Khan announced that they would file Court challenges in other elections that they feel were rigged by the Military. They also stated that if the remaining results were not disclosed by Sunday, 11 February 2024, they would encourage their supporters to stage nonviolent demonstrations.

The Military believed that Mr. Sharif would easily win the election, so Mr. Khan’s party’s success was a shocking upset. Pakistan’s strong generals believed that by intimidating Mr. Khan’s supporters and imprisoning him ahead of last week’s election, they would remove his party from the race. Rather, the election results demonstrated that, even after being removed from office and imprisoned, Mr. Khan is still a powerful figure in Pakistani politics.

Mr. Khan’s party broadcast a victory address on Friday night, 9 February 2024, imitating Mr. Khan’s voice, which has been in jail since August, but with a computer-generated one. “I want to congratulate everyone for winning the 2024 election. The voice produced by Artificial Intelligence stated, “I was completely confident that you would all cast ballots. “Everyone is in shock at your incredible turnout.”

The rise of Mr. Khan’s party threw the 240 million nuclear-armed nation of Pakistan off balance. Throughout the years, the Military has ruled with absolute control and secretly shaped politics; civilian leaders have generally only become powerful with its backing or have been removed from office by its hard hand.

The outcome of the poll also demonstrated how well Mr. Khan’s policy of advocating for change and denouncing the military has connected with disenchanted Pakistanis, especially the youth. It also demonstrated that his devoted base of supporters appeared impervious to the military’s time-honored methods of intimidating voters, such as detaining supporters and putting their political leaders in lengthy jail terms only days before the election.

Former cricket player turned populist politician Mr. Khan, was found guilty in four different trials of charges including leaking state secrets and being married outside of law, which he has described as politically motivated. He was given a total term of 34 years in prison. Analysts point out that the Military has long employed the strategy of issuing verdicts only a few days prior to elections in three of those cases. 

However, according to preliminary estimates from the Free and Fair Election Network, a coalition of Civil Society Organizations, roughly 48% of voters cast ballots in the election. According to the organization, roughly 50% of voters participated in the last two national elections. Islamabad-based analyst Zahid Hussain stated that the results were “both an anti-establishment vote and also a vote against the status quo, against the two other major political parties that have been ruling the country and their dynastic politics,” with the Military being referred to as the establishment.

Most observers predict that Mr. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or P.T.I., party will have trouble forming a government without a simple majority. Additionally, some P.T.I. leaders have stated that the party would prefer to stay in opposition than head a weak coalition government while Mr. Khan is still detained.

On Friday, 9 February 2024, Mr. Sharif delivered a victory speech to an audience of P.M.L.N. supporters, along with inviting other parties to form a coalition administration, despite trailing behind in the polls. He also hinted that P.T.I. would not be a part of the coalition. During an address in Punjab Province’s capital city of Lahore, he declared, “We are inviting everyone today to rebuild this injured Pakistan and sit with us.”

However, there would be significant political obstacles for any coalition that Mr. Sharif can establish. After Mr. Khan was overthrown, the P.M.L.N. led coalition administration faced intense public criticism for its inability to handle the nation’s crippling economic situation, which drove inflation to all-time highs. There will probably be a significant crisis of legitimacy for the new government. 

A lot of people have called the election on Thursday, 8 February 2024, one of the least trustworthy in the nation’s history, and because of the lengthy wait for the results to be announced, there have been many claims that the military manipulated the vote total to tilt the scales back in favor of the P.M.L.N.

It may take some time before any party forms a government since P.T.I. is threatening serious injuries and protracted legal fights over the outcome. The P.T.I. leader, Raoof Hasan, declared, “We will pursue all legal options and constitutional options.”

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