Imran Khan
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
July 27, 2018
Pakistan’s Election Commission said Friday former sports-celebrity-turned politician, Imran Khan, is the winner of the parliamentary election, but his party failed to win enough votes for an outright majority and will have to form a coalition government.
The announcement came hours after Khan had declared his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PT) party the winner Thursday. In a televised election victory speech, he pledged to tackle poverty and endemic corruption through a revamped governance system in the country.
Khan delivered the speech as about 90 percent of the results from Wednesday’s parliamentary polls had been compiled. His party was well ahead of its main rival, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of jailed former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.
Election rigging alleged
Almost all the main rival parties have alleged the polls were rigged and manipulated in favor of Khan, allegations the independent Election Commission of Pakistan rejected.
Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Mohammad Raza strongly defended the voting process as free and fair.
“These elections were 100 percent transparent and fair … there is no stain,” Raza insisted while speaking to reporters early Thursday.
The commission admitted that its electronic reporting system collapsed shortly after vote counting began late Wednesday, causing unprecedented delays in announcing results.
Khan also promised to provide any assistance required to investigate the rigging charges, though he declared the polls as “the fairest in Pakistan.”
Analysts say partial election results suggest Khan’s party, with the help of smaller groups and independents, is poised to establish governments not only at the center but possibly in three of Pakistan’s four provinces.
Islamic welfare state
Khan pledged in Thursday’s speech to deliver on campaign promises, saying he would turn Pakistan into an “Islamic welfare state.”
The would-be government, he said, would not use the palatial prime minister’s residence in Islamabad and would use the space for other priorities as it focuses on good governance and economic challenges facing the country.
“I would be ashamed to live in such a large house. That house will be converted into an educational institution or something of the sort,” he said. “Our state institutions will be stronger, everyone will be held accountable. First I will be subjected to accountability, then my ministers and so on.”
Khan acknowledged while speaking to VOA on the eve of the election that the economy is the biggest challenge facing Pakistan.
“The only way we can overcome this is by revamping the way we do governance in this country, strengthening institutions and then spending it on our human beings,” Khan noted. This is “the rock bottom” for Pakistan, he warned.
“Never have we fallen so low as we have right now in terms of human development, in terms of the cost of doing business, in terms of our economy going down the drain. So, the challenges are huge but they can only be done … if we change the way we do governance in this country.”
Sharif’s party has been for months accusing the military of covertly helping Khan’s election campaign, charges both Khan and the military have strongly denied.
The PML-N’s electoral chances also have been shaken by Sharif’s conviction in absentia earlier this month on corruption charges involving expensive properties he and his family held overseas.
Sharif, who immediately was placed in custody after returning from Britain nearly two weeks ago, has denounced the verdict as politically motivated. He accused a covert military-judiciary alliance of trying to keep him out of politics and undermining the integrity of his PML-N party.
Khan and his party were instrumental in leading street protests and fighting legal battles to win the conviction in corruption cases against Sharif.
Foreign policy
In his brief speech, Khan also spoke about how his party intends to deal with foreign policy challenges facing Pakistan.
Years of wars in Afghanistan have inflicted unprecedented sufferings on Afghans and they need peace, he said. The new government will make all possible efforts to promote peace in Afghanistan to ensure peace in Pakistan, Khan vowed.
“I also want to build relations with Afghanistan to a point where we have open borders just like those within the European Union,” he added.
Khan said he would seek a mutually beneficial and balanced relationship with the United States.
“We want to improve our relations with India, if their leadership also wants it. This blame game that whatever goes wrong in Pakistan is because of India and vice versa brings us back to square one. If they take one step toward us, we will take two, but we at least need a start.”
The election is just Pakistan’s third peaceful transition of power. The military has ruled the Muslim-majority nation of more than 200 million people for nearly half of the country’s 71-year-history.
Wednesday’s vote was disrupted by militant attacks and incidents involving gunfire between political rivals.
The deadliest incident occurred in Quetta, capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, where a suicide blast ripped through a crowed of political activists, voters and security personnel, killing more than 30 people. The Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for the bloodshed.
The campaign leading up to the July 25 vote had been marred by violence that left more than 170 people dead.
Related
YES; BUT STILL WALKING UNDER THE
SHADOWS
OF
THE CRAZY ENGLISHMAN
AND
HIS
NEUROTIC PARTNERS.
It would be
up
to
real people
of
the
Pakistan
to
free themselves from the
yoke
of
The low clas international
war criminals
and their stooges.
Otherwise;
with out true freedom for the people
of Pakistan- the people
of
Afghanistan would have, no choice, but
to
suffer and endure
the consequences of ANGLO/US hegemonic military, social and economic dirty games.
.
THE PAKISTANI
INPET POLITICIANS AND INSTALLED MILITARY LEADERS WOULD JUST SIT THERE, AS USUSL,
AND
GLEEFULLY WATCH
THE IMPOSED SAVAGERIES
INSIDE AFGHANISTAN
ALL
THE IDICATORS SHOW
THAT
IMRAN KHAN
ABSOLUTELY, ALL ALONG SINCE HIS ORIGINAL POLITICAL OVERTURE, HAVE HAD BEEN BACKED UP BY THE MILITARY-CONTROLLED Anglo/US WAR CRIMINALS AND THEIR STOOGES.
=========
ON THAT CSPACITY; THERE WON’T BE ANY DRASTIC SHIFTS IN THEIR
EVIL POLICIES TOWARDS
AFGHANISTAN.
SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY IMPOVERISHED
PAKISTAN
((ROUGHLY 200 MILLIONS))
URGENTLY NEEDS
A
TOTALL RESTRUCTURING
OF
ITS VITAL
INFRASTRUCTURES;
OTHERWISE, ALL THE NEIGHBORING ISLAMIC COUNTRIES WILL
BE SUFFERING AS ITS CONSEQUENCE.
••••••••••••••••
•••••••••
•••
IMRAN KHAN
IS BLUFFING- HE,
CLEARLY, NOT THE MAN FOR THAT RADICAL REFORMS (( %100 SURE)).
HE SEEMS LIKE
A
VERY
GREEDY MAN
AND
A STOOGE AT HEART
WHO
WON’T BE
ABLE
TO DELIVER EVEN HIS OWN SIMPLE PROMISES- HE
WILL JUST CARRY ON THE REGULAR GOOFY
ANGLO/US POLICIES
TOWARDS THE ISLAMIC MASSES ACROSS THE
ENTIRE REGION.
=======
===
=
LET US PRAY FOR THE SAFTTE
OF
ALL OF
OUR HONORABLE PEOPLE
IN WHOLE
OF
SOUTH-WEST
ASIA.
*
*THE ORIGINAL
ISLAMIC EMPIRE
OF
AFGHANISTAN
WAS
FOUNDED (999-930 AD)
*BY
*SULTAN MAHMOOD
GHAZNAWI
================================*THE MODERN ISLAMIC
EMPIRE
OF
AFGHANISTAN
WAS
ESTABLISHED (1747-1772 AD)
*BY
*AHMAD SHAH ((BAH-BAH))
DURRANI
He ordered the Afghan refugee in Pakhtunkhwa province
to
leave- his goofy party
was in full force of administrative affairs
of
that province when they delivered the
low-class decree
at the
tacit
the order of Anglo/US military masters
of
Pakistan- NOW;
YOU CAN IMAGINE THE REST !
Correction:
*************
Sorry; meant to say:
..,his part administration in Pakhtunkhwa ordered the expulsion of the Afghan refugees who, mostly, had lived there for many decades.
*PAKISTAN IS A HOPELESS
CASE
AND WILL
BE- AT
LEAST; FOR ANOTHER
HALF
A
GENERATION !
*