After victory in the general elections, Imran Khan’s party has challenged the Pakistani Army.

Pakistan is facing a period of great uncertainty after not getting a clear majority to form the government in the general election results. The Election Commission announced the official count this Sunday, with a clear victory Candidates associated with jailed leader Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Justice Movement (PTI). Due to several judicial hurdles imposed against the party and former Prime Minister Khan, dozens of party members were forced to contest the elections as independent candidates. Nevertheless, he has received unprecedented social support, making him the most voted choice with 97 out of 265 seats in the Pakistani Parliament. Nearly 60 million Pakistanis participated in the election, a participation of 47%, three points less than the previous election.

The country faces days of political bargaining to achieve a political alliance Minimum 133 seats To be able to rule. The unwavering support for Khan has ruined the prospects that the military-backed alternative, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League, could rule with a majority. Sharif’s party won 76 seats, followed by Bilawal Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) which won 54 seats. The Sharif and Bhutto families have taken turns in power in the country for decades and in these recent elections they have shown signs of rapprochement in an effort to form a possible government coalition to wrest power from Imran Khan’s party. Sharif’s Muslim League, which is leading the talks, has already announced an alliance with the fourth-most voted force, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which won 17 seats. “We do not have enough majority to run the government ourselves, so we invite other parties and candidates who have been successful to work with us,” Sharif told the media.

The three-time former Prime Minister has recently returned to the country. four months after self-exile Imposed to avoid jail sentence for corruption. Once in Pakistan he was acquitted of all charges and presented himself as the leader of the Muslim League candidature, a proposal that was considered as an alternative to the military to rule the country. Throughout the country’s history, the General Staff has promoted or removed various political leaders from power through coups. Although he approved of Khan in 2018, analysts say friction with the military grew leading up to his ouster through a no-confidence vote in 2022 and his imprisonment last year. Despite being in jail for almost a year and receiving two prison sentences and political disqualification, Khan has not lost popularity in the country.

In view of PTI’s victory, the army has called for peace and asked political parties which shows “maturity and unity” To form the government. “The elections are not a zero-sum, win-lose contest, but an exercise in determining the mandate of the people,” Army chief Syed Asim Munir said in a statement. “As the people of Pakistan have reposed their trust in the Constitution of Pakistan, it is now up to the political parties to respond with maturity and unity,” the note said.

On its part, PTI has strongly criticized the election authority The results of ten seats have not been revealed yet And have assured that there was fraud in the elections because according to their calculations, the party got more than 150 seats. “PTI is a peaceful party that has started a revolution through elections. They are stealing our mandate, but we will not let our struggle be hijacked by nefarious intentions,” the party leader said in a tweet. , PTI announced that it would challenge the results and called for protests in major cities of the country. The group also published a video of Imran Khan created by artificial intelligence, in which the leader condemned election fraud. “According to independent sources, we were winning with 150 seats in the National Assembly before the manipulation started,” the video claimed. In an effort to suppress the protests, security forces responded by banning gatherings of more than four people in public places.

The Free and Fair Elections Network (FAFEN) issued a statement saying that the results They were “compromised” due to lack of transparency In the voting process, authorities disrupted mobile and internet communications for about twelve hours due to “security reasons”.