Hailed as ‘Pm-elect’ without winning majority, Imran now gets down to business of bagging MPS

WITH 116 SEATS, KHAN’S PARTY PTI MUST WIN OVER 21 MORE MPS TO FORM GOVT

ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan has started reaching out to leaders of different political parties and independent candidates to form the next government in Pakistan after his party won the largest number of seats in Parliament, according to his party officials. Khan led his Pakistan Tehreek-einsaf (PTI) party to victory in the parliamentary elections last week, amid a growing consensus among South Asia experts and Pakistanobservers that it was greatly influenced and meddled by the strong Pakistani Army.

The PTI on Saturday emerged as the single largest party, winning 116 of the 270 contested seats, as Pakistan’s election commission released final results of the general elections marred by a tediously slow vote count and resulting in allegations of rigging. The final results were announced more than two days after the conclusion of voting for the 11th general elections held on July 25.

The provincial results have been also announced and the PML-N has become the single largest party with 129 seats in Punjab, the PPP with 76 in Sindh, the PTI with 66 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Balochistan Awami Party with 15 in Balochistan. According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) led the National Assembly tally with 116 seats. Jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif ’s Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N) with 64 seats and former president Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) with 43 seats are placed at number two and three respectively, the ECP said.

The PTI is on top with 16,857,035 votes, followed by PML-N with 12,894,225 and PPP with 6,894,296 votes. The party, however, is short of the 137 needed for simple majority.