By Sanjay Kapoor

Despite the elections to the Pakistan assembly, which took place on February 8, 2024, proving to be a rigged farce, there is no clarity after four days of voting about who will be the nation’s Prime Minister. The reason is that, despite the manipulation, the results took everyone by surprise, especially those who thought they could manipulate democracy to their advantage. It could be a Nawaz Sharif-led coalition government, but before that firms up, there will be many twists and turns.

In a brave rebuff, the voters first spotted and then backed those independent candidates that were being supported by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The PTI campaign had the support of AI, which made a mockery of Imran’s incarceration as well as the trouble that the army and the Election Commission had created to prevent voters from identifying PTI candidates who were contesting as independents. This was despite the egregious attempts of the army-led establishment to prevent PTI from participating in the elections by jailing its leader, the former cricket captain of Pakistan, Imran Khan, banning the party from contesting, taking away the symbol, and last but not least, putting Khan away in jail for 20 years. Nothing worked, it seems. Pakistan’s daily, The Dawn, in an editorial, castigated the army and said that “the powerful quarters should realise that meddling in civilian affairs is no longer acceptable to voters.”

The army may have been taken aback by the rude shock of these results but will seemingly do everything it takes to prevent the PTI-led independents from coming to power. In other words, they will ensure that Pakistan has a government of their own choosing. All the seats have been declared after a colossal delay. The independent legislators are 93, far ahead of the Pakistan Muslim League’s 63 seats. Nawaz Sharif’s PML(N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) could form the government, being the largest grouping in the assembly, but there are many hurdles. There are also reports of horse-trading, with big money on offer to the independents that contested and won.

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