Army chief asks Pak leaders to show maturity and unity
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s army chief told feuding politicians on Saturday to show “maturity and unity” ater an election failed to produce a clear winner.
Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir has said that Pakistan’s diverse polity and pluralism will be well-represented by a unified government of all democratic forces imbibed with national purpose.
“Elections and democracy are means to serve the people of Pakistan and not end in themselves. The nation needs stable hands and a healing touch to move on from the politics of anarchy and polarisation which does not suit a progressive country of 250 million people,” the top commander said according to the Inter-services Public Relations (ISPR).
“Elections are not a zero-sum competition of winning and losing but an exercise to determine the mandate of the people. Political leadership and their workers should rise above self-interests and synergise efforts in governing and serving the people which is perhaps the only way to make democracy functional and purposeful.”
General Munir said that as the people of Pakistan have reposed their combined trust in the Constitution of Pakistan, it is now incumbent upon all political parties to reciprocate the same with political maturity and unity.
“As we move forward from this national milestone we must reflect on where the country stands today and where our righful place should be in the comity of nations.”
The statement added that the Army chief wishes that these elections bring in political and economic stability and prove to be the harbinger of peace and prosperity for Pakistan.
The South Asian country faces days of political horse-trading ater a strong performance by independent candidates loyal to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan scuppered the chances of the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N) from winning a ruling majority.
However, to form a government, the party founded by three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will be forced to cut deals with rivals and independents.
There were reports of leaders from several parties arriving in PML-N’S power base of Lahore for talks.
“We don’t have enough of a majority to run the government ourselves, therefore we invite the other parties and candidates who have been successful to work with us,” Sharif said at his party headquarters in the city.
In an Ai-generated video produced by PTI, Imran was credited as claiming victory for the party.
“According to independent sources, we were winning 150 national assembly seats before the rigging started,” said the message posted on his X account, which featured a genuine video clip of him from a year ago and an Aigenerated voice-over.
With a handful of results outstanding - mostly from Balochistan, where small local parties tend to win - a slow counting process showed independents had won at least 100 seats, 89 of them loyal to Imran.
PML-N took 73 and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) snapped up 54.
Minor parties shared 27 seats between them - including the Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which took 17 - which are likely to be of great interest to PTI in the coming days.
If PTI’S independents join one of them, they can take a share of the further 70 un-elected seats reserved for women and religious minorities, which are allocated according to party performance in the contested vote.
Meanwhile, Pakistan on Saturday hit back at criticism over the conduct of its parliamentary elections. The strongly worded reaction from the Foreign Ministry insisted the vote was peaceful and successful.
The US State Department said that Thursday’s vote was held under undue restrictions on freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly.
The European Union has also said it regrets the lack of a level playing field due to the inability of some political actors to contest the elections.
The ministry said it was surprised by “the negative tone of some of these statements, which neither take into account the complexity of the electoral process, nor acknowledge the free and enthusiastic exercise of the right to vote by tens of millions of Pakistanis.”
It said such statements “ignore the undeniable fact that Pakistan has held general elections, peacefully and successfully, while dealing with serious security threats resulting primarily from foreign sponsored terrorism.”
It said there was no nationwide internet shutdown and “only mobile services were suspended for the day to avoid terrorist incidents on polling day.”
A Commonwealth observer group praised election officials for holding the vote despite multiple atacks. On Saturday, PTI chairman Gohar Khan accused authorities of rigging the vote but said despite that, his party would still form the government.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday hit back at criticism over the conduct of its parliamentary elections, which were held amid sporadic militant atacks and an unprecedented stoppage of all mobile phone services.
The strongly worded reaction from the Foreign Ministry insisted the vote was peaceful and successful.
The US State Department said that Thursday’s vote was held under undue restrictions on freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly. The European Union (EU) has also said it regrets the lack of a level playing field due to the inability of some political actors to contest the elections.
The ministry said it was surprised by “the negative tone of some of these statements, which neither take into account the complexity of the electoral process, nor acknowledge the free and enthusiastic exercise of the right to vote by tens of millions of Pakistanis.”
It said such statements “ignore the undeniable fact that Pakistan has held general elections, peacefully and successfully, while dealing with serious security threats resulting primarily from foreign sponsored terrorism.”
It said there was no nationwide internet shutdown and “only mobile services were suspended for the day to avoid terrorist incidents on polling day.”
A Commonwealth observer group praised election officials for holding the vote despite multiple atacks, and said it received reports of intimidation and violence against candidates, members of the media and other citizens. Without naming any party, it said it also received reports of arrests and detentions, “especially of supporters and members of a main political party.”
In Thursday’s vote, no political party gained a simple majority and independent candidates backed by imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan took a lead in the vote count.
It forced Imran’s main rival, three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, to announce plans to try to form a coalition government. Imran was disqualified from running because of criminal convictions.
Candidates backed by Imran’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf party, or PTI, won 100 out of the 266 seats up for grabs in the National Assembly.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party captured 71 seats.
On Saturday, PTI chairman Gohar Khan accused authorities of rigging the vote but said despite that, his party would still form the government. He assured supporters that Imran would be among them soon ater being freed, though he did not say how Imran would come out of prison.