The true protagonists in the February 8 national polls in Pakistan were two individuals — Army Chief General Asim Munir and former Prime Minister and founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party, Imran Khan. Munir used all levers of state power from behind the scenes and through other institutions and individuals to try to grind Khan into electoral dust. With results of 250 of the 266 general seats contested in the elections announced so far, it is certain, that he has failed to do so.
Archiv: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)
Delays spoil the party for PTI backed independents
Even after a lapse of more than seven hours, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has not given any reason for the delay leading to the expression of suspicions from contesting parties.
Prior to the elections, the electoral watchdog had introduced a new system called the Election Management System (EMS) to organize the results, but so far, the performance of the system has belied the ECP claims.
Twitter down in Pakistan after ‘controversial election under internet blackout’
ISLAMABAD: Social media platform ‘X’ is down across Pakistan as reported by Netblocks, on Saturday.
“Live metrics show a nation scale disruption X/Twitter across Pakistan: The incident come amid political turmoil after controversial election held under an internet and mobile network blackout”. the post on ‘X’ by Netblocks read.
Delays, deals, nepo babies, trends and vote rigging: Five takeaways from Pakistan’s elections
Candidates observing the count at polling stations said they saw significant leads suddenly disappear or results that were announced in their favor only to be reversed to declare an opponent the winner. They said they were marched off polling station grounds or barred from entering once voting ended and that polling agents were stopped from collecting results.
The majority of irregularities and impediments were reported by independent candidates backed by imprisoned ex-premier Imran Khan’s party.
Nawaz Sharif declares victory in Pakistan‘s election, despite failing to win a majority of seats
Mr Sharif‘s party won the most seats by a single party in Thursday‘s election, but supporters of imprisoned former prime minister Mr Khan, who ran as independents instead of as a single bloc after his party was barred from the polls, won the most seats overall.
In shock result, allies of jailed ex-leader Khan win most seats in Pakistan election
(Updated 3:01 AM EST, Sat February 10, 2024)
Khan’s opponent, former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, claimed that his PMLN party had emerged with the largest share. He admitted that his party did not have the “majority to form a government” and was looking for coalition partners.
Sharif, who once saw one of his terms end in a military coup, is considered by analysts to be favored by the country’s military establishment. The military has previously denied backing Sharif.
Pakistan: Election-day internet shutdown is a reckless attack on people’s rights
(08.02.2024)
On 6 February, Amnesty International and other members of the #KeepItOn coalition — a global network of over 300 organisations from 105 countries working to end internet shutdowns — wrote to the caretaker Prime Minister Mr Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar and Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, to ensure unfettered access to the internet, social media platforms, and all other communication channels throughout Pakistan’s general election.
Pakistani authorities have already imposed multiple shutdowns that violated the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, including of opposition leaders and parties, during this election cycle.
After the whole system has been sent in panic mode by #MassiveTurnout for PTI, they have stopped the results and now filling alternate Form 45. Pakistanis, protect your vote by going back to polling stations to get results before they change the results.
We have heard that they are planning to tell PTI Polling Agents and supporters to collect Form 45 from another location e.g. Election Commission office. All polling agents and supporters are requested to stay at the Polling Station as per Rules, this is where Form 45 shall be given. Stay peaceful as they might try to create chaos to push people away.
#ProtectTheVote #RespectTheVote
Despite every possible method employed to undermine the will of the people, our people have spoken via #MassiveTurnout for vote today. As we have repeatedly stated, „no force can defeat an idea whose time has come.“ It is now critical to guard the vote by getting Form 45.
Despite jailing and sidelining, Imran Khan’s party leading
Imran Khan complicated the possibility of Washington providing moral support, even if it were inclined, by framing his removal from office through a vote of no confidence as a U.S.-backed regime change conspiracy. This move heightened anti-American sentiment in the country.
Pakistan elections are a sham without Imran Khan
It is election day in Pakistan. But in the world’s fifth largest democracy, people are not able to vote for the most popular leader, former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who cannot contest elections after having been disbarred. Khan will spend today – and potentially 14 more years – in jail. So how did the situation get so bad and what lies ahead?
Khan and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), are leading in opinion surveys, but their electoral symbol has been banned, and observers are predicting that the vote will be a fait accompli for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N).
Pakistan sets election for January, likely minus Imran Khan
(September 21, 2023)
The election commission has already questioned the impartiality of the caretaker government led by Kakar, who comes from a pro-military party, saying it appears to be aligned with the opponents of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
As it stands, former premier Khan, the main opposition leader, cannot fight this election after he was barred from public office for five years after a corruption investigation.
Did US ask for Imran Khan’s removal as Pakistan PM after he visited Russia?
(10 Aug 2023)
Khan was sacked from power in April 2022 after he lost a no-confidence vote in parliament. He alleged he knew of the “cypher” while he was in office which, according to him, proved the US hatched a conspiracy with the help of his political opponents and the Pakistani military to remove him.
He later made a U-turn, saying he wants good relations with the US, but continued to blame his successor Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the military for orchestrating his removal.
Secret Pakistan Cable Documents U.S. Pressure to Remove Imran Khan
(09.08.2023)
One month after the meeting with U.S. officials documented in the leaked Pakistani government document, a no-confidence vote was held in Parliament, leading to Khan’s removal from power. The vote is believed to have been organized with the backing of Pakistan’s powerful military. Since that time, Khan and his supporters have been engaged in a struggle with the military and its civilian allies, whom Khan claims engineered his removal from power at the request of the U.S.
The text of the Pakistani cable, produced from the meeting by the ambassador and transmitted to Pakistan, has not previously been published. The cable, known internally as a “cypher,” reveals both the carrots and the sticks that the State Department deployed in its push against Khan, promising warmer relations if Khan was removed, and isolation if he was not.
چیئرمین عمران خان کا خصوصی پیغام (گرفتاری کے امکان کے پیشِ نظر یہ خصوصی بیان پہلے سے ریکارڈ شدہ ہے)
چیئرمین پاکستان تحریک انصاف عمران خان کا خصوصی پیغام (گرفتاری کے امکان کے پیشِ نظر یہ خصوصی بیان پہلے سے ریکارڈ شدہ ہے)
Imran Khan’s pre-recorded video goes viral after his arrest in Toshakhana case
The clip, which was recorded before much-anticipated arrest, was shared by PTI accounts as the arrest of popular politician holds potential of changing country’s political landscape.
In the 2-minute clip, the ousted PM said ‚My dear Pakistanis, this clip of mine will reach you by the time I got arrested in an unlawful case.‘
PTI calls core committee meeting; Qureshi asks party workers to remain peaceful
Reacting to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s arrest, party stalwart Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Saturday that a meeting of the core committee has been summoned and urged supporters to not take the law into their hands.
“Peaceful protest is our right but no state asset is to be damaged. Don’t take the law in your hands,” he cautioned, in a video statement released shortly after the PTI chief was handed a three-year prison term in the Toshakhanna case.
Pakistan’s Imran Khan sentenced to three years in prison, arrested
In a video recorded before his arrest and posted on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Khan called on his supporters to take to the streets in protest.
“I only have one request, one appeal for you. You must not sit quietly inside your homes. The struggle I am doing is not for my own self, it’s for my nation, for you. For the future of your children,” he said.
“If you don’t stand up for your rights, you will live lives of slaves and slaves don’t have a life.”
Two of our senior members from the negotiations committee I had formed, Pervez Khattak and Asad Qaiser, were called for a meeting by the intelligence agencies. They have now been illegally detained in a safe house and are being forced to quit PTI for their release.
(Jun 1, 2023)
In the law of jungle, might is right and the weak have no protection.
Imran Khan left alone, PTI leaders left the party, Pakistani Army Chief’s plan successful!
(03.06.2023)
Several analysts, as well as PTI members, say the army chief is now trying to break his party before arresting him and putting him on trial in a military court.
Why Imran Khan’s Enemy No 1 is Pak army chief General Asim Munir
(May 15, 2023)
The rift goes back to when Khan was the prime minister and General Munir was the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) – Pakistan’s spy agency.
Munir, who was appointed by the then Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, in October 2018 had the shortest stint as the ISI head.
Eight months after taking over as the spymaster, he was replaced by Lieutenant-General Faiz Hamid.
As per reports, this was done at the insistence of the then-Pakistan prime minister Khan.
Déjà vu as Parvez Elahi arrested for third time
(June 03, 2023)
LAHORE: In an interesting turn of events, a trial court on Saturday discharged Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr Yasmin Rashid along with 23 others, accused of vandalising the Corps Commander House (Jinnah House) in Lahore on May 9 and ordered authorities to set her free.
Separately, a court in Gujranwala also acquitted former Punjab chief minister and PTI President Parvez Elahi in two separate corruption cases. However, Punjab’s anti-corruption watchdog re-arrested Elahi soon after his release in a fresh case involving “illegal appointments”.
Today the oppression and repression of all martial laws has been surpassed. There’s a complete crackdown on PTI plus anyone who dares to criticise the blatant violations of all fundamental rights of our citizen. Jibran Nasir‘s abduction only reinforces the fact that we are headed to the Nazi Germany era post 1933.
(02.06.2023)
President of Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan‘s party arrested in Lahore
(01.06.2023)
Pervez Elahi, president of Khan‘s Tehreek-e-Insaf party, joins a long list of key PTI leaders arrested in the security swoop to halt turmoil that has threatened to worsen instability in a country reeling from a crippling financial crisis.
Pakistan: PTI leader Shireen Mazari arrested
In a late-night raid at her residence in the federal capital on Friday, PTI Senior Vice President Dr. Shireen Mazari was taken into custody, continuing the police crackdown on PTI leaders.
Officials claim that the Islamabad police raided her home early on Friday. Shireen Mazari was detained after a number of other PTI leaders, including Senator Ejaz Chaudhry, Imran Khan, Asad Umar, Fawad Chaudhry, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and Ali Mohammad Khan, were also taken into custody.
President Alvi holds hours-long meeting with Imran Khan
„I would like to draw your attention to the way Imran Khan was arrested,“ the president wrote in his strongly-worded letter two days after the PTI chief was arrested in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case, which led to widespread deadly protests.
„The people of Pakistan and I were shocked to see the video of this incident. The video shows the abuse of a former prime minister. Imran Khan is a popular leader and the head of a major political party.“
Pakistan arrests top tier of PTI leaders including former FM Qureshi
Qureshi was arrested in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Islamabad police spokesperson confirmed that scores of PTI leaders, including Qureshi, Umar, Fawad , Jamshed Iqbal Cheema, Falak Naz Chitrali, Mussarat Jamshed Cheema, and Maleeka Bukhari, were arrested, Geo TV reported.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi arrested amid crackdown against top PTI leaders after deadly clashes
(11.05.2023)
The government and armed forces started a crackdown as mass protests turned violent on Wednesday as thousands took to the streets to protest the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan, who was arrested on Tuesday.
After Fawad Chaudhry and Asad Umar, now the former foreign minister was detained in the wee hours on Thursday during a raid at Gilgit-Baltidstan House.
PTI rejects Mohsin Naqvi‘s appointment as Punjab caretaker CM
(January 22, 2023)
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry took a jibe at the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to appoint PML-N’s nominee Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi as Punjab caretaker chief minister saying that the electoral watchdog never failed to disappoint. (…)
He called on party workers to prepare, saying that a large campaign would be launched under the leadership of party chief Imran Khan.
Makhdoom Syed Sami Ul Hassan Gillani
He was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan from Constituency NA-174 (Bahawalpur-V) as a candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in Pakistani general election, 2018
PTI Govt Sought Opposition’s Support for South Punjab Bill
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said, on Wednesday, the government had introduced the South Punjab bill in the National Assembly and sought the help of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to get it passed. During a news conference, Qureshi said the bill moved by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government would require amendments in Articles 1, 51, 59,106,198,218 of the Constitution. “We have to make the amendments to make South Punjab province a reality.”
After PPP, PML-N also set to launch anti-govt movement
Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday gave the go-ahead to his party’s leaders and supporters to launch an anti-government movement over rising inflation and devaluation of the rupee against the US dollar after Eidul Fitr, a day after former president Asif Zardari announced a similar movement against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.