ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s army chief told feuding politicians on Saturday to show “maturity and unity” after an election failed to produce a clear winner, leaving the military’s favoured party seeking to cobble together a coalition in order to rule.
Asim Munir, the Chief of Army Staff, ”wishes that these elections bring in political and economic stability and prove to be the harbinger of peace and prosperity for our beloved Pakistan”, said a statement released by the media wing of the military.
He congratulated the country for the “successful conduct” of national elections, saying the nation needed “stable hands” to move on from the politics of “anarchy and polarisation”.
The nuclear-armed South Asian nation voted on Thursday in a general election that remains undecided, as it struggles to recover from an economic crisis and battles militant violence in a deeply polarised political environment.
Two former prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan, have both declared victory.
Khan, who is in jail and was barred from running, rejected Sharif’s claim in a message on the social media platform X. He called on his supporters to celebrate what he called a win achieved despite a crackdown on his party, which was also barred, forcing its supporters to run as independents.
About 100 of the winning candidates — all but eight of them backed by Khan’s party — are independents, said the Free and Fair Election Network, a non-profit poll watchdog.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won 71 seats, while the Pakistan People’s Party of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of assassinated premier Benazir Bhutto, got 53.
Sharif, who returned from exile last year and subsequently had all charges against him dropped, is seen as the choice of the military who, like their peers in Thailand, have long had an outsize influence on politics.
The remaining seats were won by small parties and other independents, with more than a dozen of the 265 seats at stake still undecided some 48 hours after polling ended.
The United States, Britain and the European Union on Friday each expressed concerns about the electoral process, urging a probe into reported irregularities.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron cited “serious concerns” that raised questions “about the fairness and lack of inclusivity of the elections”.
Concerns arose after mobile internet services were shut down across most of the country on polling day, for what authorities called security reasons. As a result, people had trouble getting information about polling stations and parties struggled to communicate with their supporters.
Pakistan’s foreign office countered the international criticisms on Saturday, saying they ignore the “undeniable fact” of Pakistan conducting elections successfully.
Sharif said his party had emerged as the largest and that it would talk to other groups to form a coalition government.
By law, independent candidates cannot form a government on their own and need to join a party.
Khan’s close aide and media adviser, Zulfi Bukhari, told Reuters that the Tehreek-e-Insaf party would soon announce the banner under which it would ask the independents to continue.
Once that is decided — and if enough independents follow Khan’s advice — then the party they join would also be in a position to attempt to put together a coalition.
“And we have no fear of independents going anywhere, because these are the people who have struggled for the last 18 months and endured all kinds of torture and oppression,” he said in a voice note on WhatsApp.
Gohar Ali Khan, chairman of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party, addresses a news conference at party headquarters in Islamabad on Saturday. The party headed by former PM Imran Khan was banned from competing in this week’s polls but its candidates ran as independents and together won more seats than any other party. (Photo: Reuters)