Pakistan election 2024: Imran Khan-backed candidates take lead

9 February 2024 08:33 pm Views - 2487

Pakistan, Feb 09 - With Imran Khan’s PTI-backed independent candidates taking the lead, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif said that his party did not have the numbers to form the government, adding that it would have been good if they had a clear majority, Reuters reported.

Ruling out any alliance with the PML-N or Bilawal Bhutto’s PPP, PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan said that they would “form the government at the Centre and Punjab,” as per Associated Press.

The counting of votes for the Pakistan general elections was underway on Friday. The polling had begun at 8.30 am (IST) on Thursday and continued till 5.30 pm, amid allegations of rigging, sporadic violence and a countrywide mobile phone shutdown. 

Jailed Imran Khan's party, PTI, claimed victory in the general elections while alleging that results were being delayed to rig the outcome. In a statement, the party also asked PML-N's supreme leader Nawaz Sharif, to concede defeat.

There were dozens of parties in the fray but the main contest was among Khan's PTI, whose candidates are running as independents, former three-time premier Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Bilawal Zardari Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).