Live: Elections 2024

Several internet users have reported outage of X (formerly Twitter) across the country with Netblocks also confirming the diruption to the micro-blogging website.

Activist Usama Khilji noted that X remained inaccessible across Pakistan even after two days since the elections, amid reports of online allegations of poll rigging.

Another activist Ammar Rashid expressed concern that frequent mass communication shutdowns were compromising transparency and being used to manipulate political outcomes.

A user named Farid Khan questioned the reasons behind the issues with X.

Moreover, PTI Karachi highlighted that X services were experiencing widespread slowdowns across the country.

Videos and posts circulating on social media platform X on Friday quoted foreign media outlets as reporting that the PTI had won over 150 seats in the general elections. No proof was found, however, for such reports having been aired.

The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the claim regarding foreign media reporting a PTI win over 150 seats is false. The attached video presented as evidence for the claim did not report any such thing or even mention the number.

Read more here.

Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq has said the party has become a national-level organisation at the “3rd or 4th level” after the general elections.

Addressing a press conference in Lahore, he said: “I accept that we have not shown the numbers in the National Assembly but we have still spread our revolutionary message to the people.”

He said that the imposition of Islamic law was the only solution to the issues of the country at every level.

“We have received more votes than before and we have moved forward.”

PTI leader Barrister Gohar Ali Khan has called on party workers and supporters to hold a protest tomorrow outside the offices of returning officers in constituencies where the poll results were being “withheld and delayed”.

“According to [Imran] Khan sahib’s instructions, the areas in which our results were withheld and delayed — we will share that list with you — and intentionally our majority is being converted… to turn a winning seat into a defeat.

“This is why, God-willing, the areas in which the results were not declared, we will hold protests tomorrow in those constituencies outside the relevant RO offices.”

Gohar added that the protest would be peaceful, urging party workers and supporters to protest “according to the law”, adding that it was a constitutional right.

President Arif Alvi has said that Pakistan could have avoided the crisis stemming from the delay in election results if electronic voting machines (EVMs) — a system strongly advocated by PTI during their tenure — were in use.

In a post on X, the president reminisced about the party’s struggle for enforcement of electronic voting machines, asking “remember our long struggle for electronic voting machines”.

“EVM had paper ballots that could be counted separately by hand (like it is being done today) BUT it also had a simple electronic calculator/counter of each vote button pressed. Totals of every candidate would have been available & printed within five minutes of closing of poll,” he said.

He added that the entire effort that included more than 50 meetings at the Presidency alone was “scuttled”.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), a re-poll would be conducted in Punjab’s NA-88 for 26 polling stations on Feb 15.

Earlier, a Dawn report had stated, “In NA-88, Khushab, Moazam Kallu, an independent candidate, was elected.” It had said he was also affiliated with the PML-N.

In the Punjab Assembly, the PTI has claimed victory on 39 NA seats out of the 45 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Speaking to the media, Barrister Gohar Khan further claimed it was the “first time in Pakistan’s history that a party had won these many National Assembly seats from KP”.

He said that the party had won the majority of the provincial seats in KP and was “heading towards” winning a majority in the Punjab Assembly.

Interim Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar anticipates the formation of a coalition government, which he believes will need to be negotiated among political parties.

“It appears that no single party is poised to form the government independently. I anticipate the formation of a coalition — a coalition of whosoever,” he told TRT World.

He added that once the process concludes, one might hope for some stability in addressing the economic crisis. The premier emphasised that Pakistan critically needed both political and economic stability.

PTI leader Barrister Gohar Khan has claimed that the PTI has won 170 National Assembly seats out of the 265 where elections were held.

Speaking to the media, he said, “We claim with great certitude that right now, the PTI has achieved a lead on 170 seats of the National Assembly.

“Out of these, 94 are those that the ECP is admitting and has issued Form-47 (provisional results),” he added.

Gohar further said that 22 seats — including three of Islamabad, four of Sindh and the rest of Punjab — were those where according to Form-45, the PTI had won but were “converted to a defeat”.

Caretaker premier Anwaarul Haq Kakar has said that there was no political motive behind communications blackout on the election day, adding that people were able to peacefully exercise their right to vote.

In an interview with TRT World, he emphasised that the government’s primary responsibility has always been the security and well-being of the people.

Referring to two violent incidents occurring in Balochistan the day before the election, he highlighted the ongoing security challenges faced by the government.

He further stated that part of addressing these challenges involved temporarily blocking communication channels to counter terrorist activities.

PTI leader Gohar Khan has said there was an “apparent attempt to shape the winning seats of the PTI into defeats”.

Speaking to the media, he said people used their right to vote peacefully on February 8 on ex-premier Imran Khan’s call.

He said it was the ECP’s “constitutional and legal responsibility” to declare polling results by 2am the next day and to explain the reasons if there was a delay.

Stating that the ECP’s “last responsibility was to compile the results in a transparent manner”, Gohar said that according to the law, the contesting candidate, an election agent and an authorised observer needed to be present during the compilation process.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar has said that he is unsure which party will secure the “magic number of 169” seats required to form the next government.

In an interview with TRT World, the premier uncertainty regarding which party will ultimately be responsible for forming the new government.

“Pakistan is a transitional democracy and I think so this time it has proven to be a brave democracy considering the security challenges we were facing as a society,” he told the interviewer.

Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra, who was contesting from PK-79 as a PTI-affiliated candidate, has said that the worst kind of poll rigging in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s history was witnessed in the general elections.

He said that if their conscious were to come alive, they would not change the votes so blatantly.

Another PTI leader, Shandana Gulzar, also talked about the rigging in polls, alleging that the candidates were threatened.

She highlighted that “robberies” of polls took place in almost every constituency of PTI-backed candidates.

Gulzar added that such actions were close to inciting “war” with the citizens, drawing on the example of Bangladesh.

The United States, Britain and the European Union have separately expressed concerns about Pakistan’s electoral process in the wake of a vote on Thursday and urged a probe into reported irregularities, Reuters reports.

The US and the EU both mentioned allegations of interference, including arrests of activists, and added that claims of irregularities, interference and fraud should be fully investigated.

The EU statement noted a “lack of a level playing field”, attributing that to “the inability of some political actors to contest the elections” and to restrictions to freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and internet access.

Some US lawmakers such as Democratic US Representatives Ro Khanna and Ilhan Omar also expressed concerns, with Khanna saying “the military is interfering and rigging the result.”

Both Khanna and Omar urged the State Department not to recognise a winner until investigations are conducted into allegations of misconduct.

The EU, the U.S. and Britain said they would work with the next government and did not congratulate any candidate or party.

Meher Bano Qureshi, who was contesting from NA-151 as a PTI-affiliated candidate, has said she would approach a court against the polling results in her Multan constituency.

In a post on X, Meher, daughter of senior PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said she reached the returning officer’s (RO) office to request a recounting of the votes but neither the RO nor anyone else to receive the request was present there.

“This is my constitutional and legal right for which I have come here with a petition but the RO sahib is not present to fulfil his constitutional duties,” she added.

Ex-MNA Mohsin Dawar was taken to a district hospital in North Waziristan after he got injured in a firing incident, National Democratic Movement (NDM) leader Bushra Gohar has said.

Gohar told Dawn.com that several others were also injured in the incident.

She said she wanted the district administration to “take action as soon as possible” on the incident but was not able to get in touch despite trying to contact them.

Gohar added that NDM leaders were in the process of filing a first information report.

Former human rights minister Shireen Mazari has said that the incident in which ex-MNA Mohsin Dawar got injured was“totally condemnable“.

In a post on X, referring to two PTI workers killed in clashes in Shangla a day ago, she said, “Yesterday, two young people [were] killed in Shangla and now this.”

The former minister prayed for the recovery of Dawar and others.

PTI-backed independent candidate Dawar Khan Kundi has won the NA-43 (Tank-Dera Ismail Khan) constituency with 63,556 votes, according to the provisional results released by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Ex-MNA Asad Mahmood, the son of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam—Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, was the runner-up with a close 62,730 votes.

Jamiat-i-Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) candidate Misbahuddin has won North Waziristan’s NA-40 constituency with 42,994 votes, according to the provisional results released by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

PTI-backed independent candidate Aurangzeb Khan was the runner-up with 33,852 votes while National Democratic Movement’s Mohsin Dawar secured the third place with a close 32,768 votes.

Balochistan National Party-Mengal chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal has condemned the “attack” on ex-MNA Mohsin Dawar.

“Everything is being done to change results. We stand united with Mohsin Dawar during this time. Prayers for his quick recovery,” he said in a post on X.

After Mohsin Dawar was injured in a firing incident, National Democratic Movement leader Bushra Gohar says she has been trying to contact the North Waziristan district commissioner to “hold an urgent inquiry into the unlawful attack on peaceful protestors”.

“I also wanted to ask them to make arrangements for shifting Dawar and others critically injured to Peshawar,” she said in a post on X.

Ex-MNA Mohsin Dawar has been injured in a “firing” incident in North Waziristan’s Miranshah, his party leader Bushra Gohar has said.

Dawar, the chief of the National Democratic Movement, was contesting from the district’s NA-40 constituency, where he had alleged there were attempts to rig the polling results.

The incident comes more than a month after he survived a gun attack on his convoy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s tribal districts.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan’s provisional results, 14 National Assembly seats are still pending as the country remains on edge over its political future.

The remaining seats are NA-40, NA-43, NA-62, NA-85, NA-88, NA-251, NA-252, NA-253, NA-254, NA-258, NA-260, NA-261, NA-263 and NA-266.

PPP’s Malik Shah has emerged victorious on the NA-259 seat (Kech-Gwadar) of Balochistan with 40,778 votes, according to the provisional results released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Abdul Malik of the National Party was the runner-up with 22,298 votes while Hussain Baloch of the Haq Do Tehreek ranked third with a close 21,350 votes.

Responding to statements made by countries and organisations about the general elections in Pakistan, the Foreign Office has said that some of those were “not even factual”.

“There was no nationwide internet shutdown. Only mobile services were suspended for the day to avoid terrorist incidents on the polling day. The elections exercise has demonstrated that the concerns of many commentators were misplaced,” the FO said in a press release.

“While we value constructive advice from our friends, making negative commentary even before the completion of electoral process is neither constructive nor objective,” it added.

The FO asserted the country would “continue to work towards building a vibrant democratic polity”, adding that “every election and peaceful transition of power brings us closer to that goal”.

The Foreign Office has said it is “surprised by the negative tone of some” of the statements made by certain countries and organisations on the general elections.

In a press release, the FO said the statements neither took “into account the complexity of the electoral process nor acknowledged the free and enthusiastic exercise of the right to vote by tens of millions of Pakistanis”.

“These 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 added.

Protests were held in Peshawar and Quetta by party workers against the results of elections, AFP reports.

“Our results have been changed,” claimed 28-year-old shopkeeper Muhammad Saleem, who joined around 2,000 PTI supporters marching in Peshawar. “The government should recount all of our votes.”

Mohammad Zubair, a 19-year-old street hawker in Lahore, said PTI supporters would not accept a PML-N victory.

“Everyone knows how many seats Khan’s independent candidates have won,” he said. “They don’t have a symbol, or a captain, or a flag, or banners but still we have won on the field.”

The Australian government has said it was “regrettable” that Pakistanis were “restricted in their choice” of voting during the elections.

In a statement shared by Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan Neil Hawkins, the government noted that “not all political parties were allowed to contest these elections”.

It, however, welcomed the “increase in the number of women registered to vote and the fact that millions of Pakistanis chose to vote”.

“Australia supports a democratic, stable and prosperous Pakistan which upholds its commitments to democratic principles including human rights, media freedoms, freedom of expression, and freedom of association,” the statement said.

“PTI as a party and political group, despite significant efforts by the civilian and military establishment, has held on to its vote bank,” AFP quotes Bilal Gilani, the executive director of polling group Gallup Pakistan, as saying.

“It shows that the military does not always get their way — that is the silver lining,” he told AFP.

Digital rights activist Usama Khilji said the mobile service blackout “strengthens the popular perception that the elections are rigged by the deep state”.

The Lahore High Court has restrained the returning officer of the NA-128 constituency from notifying the election result based on Form 47.

Justice Ali Baqar Najafi passed the order on a petition filed by Advocate Salman Akram Raja, a PTI-backed independent candidate from the constituency, against Awn Chaudhry of the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party.

Raja personally appeared before the court along with his counsel. The counsel argued that Mr Raja was not allowed to witness the process of vote count and that his polling agent was not handed over Form 45 by the polling staff.

Raja was even expelled from the polling station by the returning officer with assistance from the police, the counsel said. This incident prompted the candidate to file a complaint with the CCPO of Lahore regarding the polling staff’s behaviour.

Read more here.

Jamaat-i-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmed has congratulated his party colleague Hafiz Naeemur Rehman for winning the PS-129 provincial seat from Karachi.

In a post on X, he said it was an “insult to the people of Karachi” that an attempt was made to “impose a rejected party by digging it out of the grave of history”, later specifying that party as the Muttahida Qaumi Movement—Pakistan.