Nawaz Sharif, in his so-called victory speech addressing party workers in Lahore on Friday evening, said Pakistan needs ten years of stability to emerge from the crises it finds itself in and said the nation requires a healing touch. On Saturday, the chief of army staff general (COAS) Syed Asim Munir issued a similar statement and used the same words, almost.
Munir said Pakistan needed ‘stable hands’ and a ‘healing touch’ to move on from the politics of anarchy and polarisation. He said polarisation ‘does not suit a progressive country of 250 million people’.
“Elections are not a zero-sum competition of winning and losing but an exercise to determine the mandate of the people. Political leadership and their workers should rise above self-interests and synergise efforts in governing and serving the people which is perhaps the only way to make democracy functional and purposeful,” the army chief said, according to a report by GeoNews.
The statements made by Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan army chief share uncanny similarities which further gives fodder to the claims that the general elections were rather ‘general’s elections’ – a reference to Pakistan army’s age-old practice of interfering in the nation’s electoral process.
People familiar with the developments told CNN-News18 on Thursday that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) founder Nawaz Sharif has won the blessing of the generals.
In a report published on Thursday, the aforementioned people also said that Pakistan’s deep state suspended cellular networks in a bid to rig the polls.
The Pakistan election results showed that independents backed by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have won 91 seats (at the time of writing this report) and PML-N have won 71 seats but both rivals failed to reach the magic number required to form the government at the centre.
PTI-backed independents have won 91 seats, the PML-N secured 69 seats, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) secured 52 seats, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan (MQM-P) secured 15 seats, the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) (PML-Q) secured 3 seats, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) secured 2 seats, non-PTI backed independents secured 8 seats and other contenders won five seats.
Nawaz Sharif gave a victory speech from the PML-N headquarters in Lahore and dispatched Shehbaz Sharif to hold coalition talks with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan (MQM-P) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F).
The PTI is also speaking to smaller parties in a bid to form the government.
Both camps said they have the majority to form the government in the centre as well as in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
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