Monitor News Bureau
Islamabad, July 27: With nearly two days elapsing since the counting of poll results began, official results show cricket star Imran Khan leads in Pakistan general elections but he will have to seek out allies to form a coalition government.
After a tediously slow count, Pakistan election officials Friday announced Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party won 115 of the 270 seats being contested in the National Assembly.
The election Wednesday gave his nearest rival, Shahbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League 63 seats. Sharif who heads the party of jailed ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif has rejected the results charging widespread fraud and manipulation.
Khan declared his victory on Thursday and dismissed the allegations of fraud calling it the most transparent election in Pakistan’s history.
Third place went to the left of center Pakistan People’s party with 39 seats. Results from 20 seats were still being counted.
Khan’s party also appears to succeeded in wresting control of the local assembly in Pakistan’s biggest province, Punjab, from the Sharifs, according to reports.
Punjab is home to more than half of Pakistan’s 208 million people and been the power base of the Sharif family for more than three decades.
Pakistan’s election monitoring body and a team from the European Union were scheduled to deliver their assessments of the conduct of the election on Friday.
Mehbooba congratulates Imran
Srinagar, July 27: Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Friday congratulated Imran Khan over his victory in the Pakistan general elections as his party continues to gain lead while the counting goes on.
Mehbooba congratulated the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf president for his victory after his party is set to win the elections.
She said that Khan’s hard work and tenacity had won the day after trends on Friday showed that Imran Khan was set to rule the country.
Mehbooba took to her twitter handle and wrote, “Congratulations to @ImranKhanPTI on his victory. His hard work and tenacity won the day,”
Earlier on Thursday after PTI came out as single largest party, Imran Khan declared victory and addressed the media and said, “Kashmir remains our biggest contention. Kashmiris are suffering for long. We have to solve Kashmir issue by sitting across the table. If India’s leadership is willing then the both of us can solve this issue through dialogue. It will be good for the subcontinent also.”
Indian media’s response to his speech unfortunate: Shah Faesal
Srinagar, July 27: Indian Administrative Services (IAS) topper Shah Faesal on Friday took a dig at the India media over the coverage of Pakistan elections in which prime minister elect Imran Khan talked about the reconciliatory approach to solve issues between the two countries.
Expressing his dismay over a section of Indian media, the IAS topper from Kashmir called the approach of the media as unfortunate over their criticism of the win and the election victory speech of the cricketer-turned-politician Khan.
“India is being shamed (internationally) by (a section of) Indian media. The neighbouring country has elected a new PM, he is talking about reconciliation, he is talking about change, but the loudmouths on this side are ranting to ensure that the hostilities continue. Unfortunate,” Shah Faesal wrote on Twitter.
On Thursday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf emerged as the single largest party in the National Assembly of Pakistan.
The charismatic Khan is set to become the new Pakistan Prime Minister in what will be the second consecutive democratic transfer of power in the country.
In his victory speech while calling Kashmir as core issue with India, Khan called for a dialogue with India to sort out all outstanding issues.
