Imran’s rivals gear up for agitation

Fasihur Rehman Khan

Islamabad, July 26

A political storm is brewing in Pakistan. Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has won the elections, termed by a majority mainstream and small parties as rigged. The PTI is in a position to form the central government through a coalition and an independent government in its political bastion Khyber Pukhtunkhawa. It is in a neck-and-neck race with the PML-N to capture the Punjab province with the help of Independents. 

The PTI is jubilantly celebrating the electoral turnaround in its favour, ignoring genuine complaints of vote manipulation. The Elections Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has put their number at 675 — 272 for National Assembly and 570 for provincial assembly seats. But it has been unable to come up with credible answers to complaints by losing candidates for denying them an authentic verified result (form 45) at polling stations.

 People from a cross-section of Pakistan society fear political instability during the next few months with the Opposition preparing for a long haul of agitation politics inside and outside the National Assembly. The BNP from Baluchistan and small pressure groups have rejected Wednesday's polls, saying the exercise was manipulated in PTI's favour.  Jailed former premier Nawaz Sharif alleged the people's mandate had been "stolen". He vowed to fight on as party leaders and his brother Shehbaz Sharif met him in Rawalpindi's Adiyala Jail.  

Imran Khan addressed the nation as premier-in-waiting through live telecast from his Bani Galla residence in Islamabad. He tried to calm down the agitated opposition parties, agreeing to get the rigging  allegations investigated to their satisfaction. He promised austerity and uplifting the poor and downtrodden and vowed to improve the economy. 

The PTI is expected to form the next government in Islamabad with the help of Independents and small parties. The top party leadership has already kickstarted consultations with the PML-Q and BAP. But the  tricky part of this consultation process will unfold when the PTI leadership formally contacts Opposition's PPP and MQM Pakistan - both aggrieved by electoral losses in the port city of Karachi and interior Sindh. Both have accused the PTI of maneuvering the poll results with the help of the ECP and security forces in and outside the polling stations.

Observers are keenly monitoring the PPP's next move - whether it embraces the PTI for a share in central government or opts for Opposition benches in the National Assembly. Bilawal Bhutto's party is in a position to form government in Sindh. There is a feeling that it may not respond to the opposition's call for a phase-wise agitation.

‘Naya Pakistan’

• Imran Khan has vowed to make a ‘Naya Pakistan’ which would be an Islamic welfare state. He believes the “most viable” policy to ensure peace in the region was to cooperate with India
• His party has prepared a 100-day plan to meet  economic and administrative woes faced by the country. On combating terror, it promises to take immediate steps to reform the criminal judicial system
• On the foreign policy and national defence front, his party’s manifesto promises to work on a blueprint towards resolving the Kashmir issue within the parameters of the UN Security Council resolutions

PM house to be a public space

• Imran Khan, who is set to become Pakistan’s premier, on Thursday said he would not live in the official residence of the PM and the “lavish” house will be converted into a public space like an educational institution
• The 65-year-old chief of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party promised to make Pakistan free of the perpetual rich-getting-richer and poor-getting-poorer cycle and said that “change has to come from the top” 
• “Our government will decide what we will do with PM House. I would be ashamed to live in such a lavish house. That house will be converted into an educational institution or something of the sort for the welfare of the people,” he said
• “I decided to join politics 22 years back when I saw collapse of governance system and corruption in Pakistan,” the cricketer-turned-politician  said

Extremist groups fail to perform

• Extremist and banned groups, including Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-backed Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek, have failed miserably in Pakistan’s general elections despite their massive campaign
• Hundreds of individuals linked with hardline and banned groups were competing in the polls but so far, according to the unofficial results, none of them was seen as winning a seat in the national or provincial assemblies
• Only few could garner a respectable number of votes, including Maulana Ludhianvi whose name was removed from a banned list called Fourth Schedule ahead of poll and allowed to contest, inviting international backlash
• Before the elections, concerns have been raised in the country over the participation of hardline Islamist groups in large numbers