Nawaz Sharif said his Pakistan Muslim League had won the most seats in the nation’s landmark election, as state-run television and other media broadcast unofficial counts backing his claim. No official results have been released.
As of 8 a.m. local time, Sharif’s party was winning 118 seats of 268 contested in the 342-member lower house of parliament, according to the tally by Pakistan Television. Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party emerged as a major political force, leading in 32 seats. The Pakistan Peoples Party, led by President Asif Ali Zardari, also had 32 seats, mostly from its Sindh province bastion.
“The results are still coming in but it is almost confirmed that the Pakistan Muslim League is the biggest party in elections,” Sharif, a two-time prime minister who was ousted in a 1999 coup and exiled, said in an address to his supporters in Lahore late yesterday, offering to hold talks with his political rivals to help resolve Pakistan’s problems.
The next government will face violence by militant groups that has escalated with election-related bombings claiming at least 151 lives since April. Khan’s group will be able to form the provincial government in the violence-plagued Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region in the northwest where he has pledged to negotiate with tribal militants in the area bordering Afghanistan, according to the unofficial count.
[h=2]Real Force[/h]“The biggest surprise is that Khan is emerging as a real political force,” Rashid Ahmed Khan, a professor of politics at the University of Sargodha, said by phone. “For Sharif, it seems to be an easy sail. He can form a coalition government by joining hands with nationalists from smaller provinces.”
Earlier reports giving Sharif a lead in more than 112 seats were based on constituencies where counting was still underway. Figures released this morning were unofficial results of areas where counting had been completed.
Over 60 percent of Pakistan’s 86 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday in a near record turnout, state-run radio quoted Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, chief election commissioner, as saying. In 2008, 44 percent voted.
The election marks an unprecedented transfer of power between civilian governments, an achievement in a country ruled for half its history by the army. Zardari’s party led the coalition government that completed its five-year term in March.
Sharif, 63, won both the seats he was contesting from Punjab, while Khan, 60, won at least two of the four seats he fought, including one in Peshawar, according to Radio Pakistan.
Candidates can run from multiple seats under Pakistani election laws. A by-election is then held after a lawmaker selects one winning seat and gives up others.
[h=2]Power Crisis[/h]Sharif has vowed to seek a consensus with opposition parties and the army if elected to counter militancy that has led to 40,000 deaths in the world’s second-most populous Muslim nation since 2001. He has said he’s open to talks with the Taliban.
A new administration will also face the challenge of reviving an economy wracked by a power-supply crisis that officials said sliced 2 percentage points off growth in the last fiscal year.
Investors have yet to signal concern about any prolonged political jockeying, with the Karachi Stock Exchange’s 100-share index surging 18 percent this year. Boosted by higher consumer spending, earnings of companies in the benchmark gauge rose 43 percent in the past 12 months, the most among 17 Asian equity indexes, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
“Dealing with the problems of the economy will require some creative work and some bold and tough decisions,” said Raza Rumi, political analyst and director of policy and programs at the Islamabad-based think-tank Jinnah Institute.
Sharif will have to “reform the tax structure, raise revenue to manage the debt” that has crippled the power sector, Rumi said. “This sort of program is not achievable without multi-party consensus.”
Under Zardari’s administration, growth in the $210 billion economy slumped to an average 3 percent as power cuts as long as 18 hours a day shut factories and terrorism deterred investment. The growth rate was less than half the annual pace of the previous five years.
To contact the reporters on this story: Augustine Anthony in Karachi, Pakistan at [email protected]; Faseeh Mangi in Karachi, Pakistan at [email protected].
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at [email protected]
As of 8 a.m. local time, Sharif’s party was winning 118 seats of 268 contested in the 342-member lower house of parliament, according to the tally by Pakistan Television. Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party emerged as a major political force, leading in 32 seats. The Pakistan Peoples Party, led by President Asif Ali Zardari, also had 32 seats, mostly from its Sindh province bastion.
“The results are still coming in but it is almost confirmed that the Pakistan Muslim League is the biggest party in elections,” Sharif, a two-time prime minister who was ousted in a 1999 coup and exiled, said in an address to his supporters in Lahore late yesterday, offering to hold talks with his political rivals to help resolve Pakistan’s problems.
The next government will face violence by militant groups that has escalated with election-related bombings claiming at least 151 lives since April. Khan’s group will be able to form the provincial government in the violence-plagued Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region in the northwest where he has pledged to negotiate with tribal militants in the area bordering Afghanistan, according to the unofficial count.
[h=2]Real Force[/h]“The biggest surprise is that Khan is emerging as a real political force,” Rashid Ahmed Khan, a professor of politics at the University of Sargodha, said by phone. “For Sharif, it seems to be an easy sail. He can form a coalition government by joining hands with nationalists from smaller provinces.”
Earlier reports giving Sharif a lead in more than 112 seats were based on constituencies where counting was still underway. Figures released this morning were unofficial results of areas where counting had been completed.
Over 60 percent of Pakistan’s 86 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday in a near record turnout, state-run radio quoted Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, chief election commissioner, as saying. In 2008, 44 percent voted.
The election marks an unprecedented transfer of power between civilian governments, an achievement in a country ruled for half its history by the army. Zardari’s party led the coalition government that completed its five-year term in March.
Sharif, 63, won both the seats he was contesting from Punjab, while Khan, 60, won at least two of the four seats he fought, including one in Peshawar, according to Radio Pakistan.
Candidates can run from multiple seats under Pakistani election laws. A by-election is then held after a lawmaker selects one winning seat and gives up others.
[h=2]Power Crisis[/h]Sharif has vowed to seek a consensus with opposition parties and the army if elected to counter militancy that has led to 40,000 deaths in the world’s second-most populous Muslim nation since 2001. He has said he’s open to talks with the Taliban.
A new administration will also face the challenge of reviving an economy wracked by a power-supply crisis that officials said sliced 2 percentage points off growth in the last fiscal year.
Investors have yet to signal concern about any prolonged political jockeying, with the Karachi Stock Exchange’s 100-share index surging 18 percent this year. Boosted by higher consumer spending, earnings of companies in the benchmark gauge rose 43 percent in the past 12 months, the most among 17 Asian equity indexes, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
“Dealing with the problems of the economy will require some creative work and some bold and tough decisions,” said Raza Rumi, political analyst and director of policy and programs at the Islamabad-based think-tank Jinnah Institute.
Sharif will have to “reform the tax structure, raise revenue to manage the debt” that has crippled the power sector, Rumi said. “This sort of program is not achievable without multi-party consensus.”
Under Zardari’s administration, growth in the $210 billion economy slumped to an average 3 percent as power cuts as long as 18 hours a day shut factories and terrorism deterred investment. The growth rate was less than half the annual pace of the previous five years.
To contact the reporters on this story: Augustine Anthony in Karachi, Pakistan at [email protected]; Faseeh Mangi in Karachi, Pakistan at [email protected].
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at [email protected]