IMRAN KHAN FACES ELECTORAL SETBACK
▶ But despite Pakistan’s economic chaos, opposition parties fail to land knockout blow on country’s new leader
In Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s first electoral test since taking power in July, his party fended off a challenge from the opposition as they fought for by-election seats across the country.
Voters delivered neck-andneck contests to send representatives to the national and provincial assemblies less than three months after Mr Khan swept to power.
Opposition parties said the vote would deliver a damning verdict on his early weeks in office during which Mr Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government struggled to address the country’s economic problems.
But with more than 90 per cent of official results counted, it appeared that opposition parties failed to deliver a drubbing or alter the balance of power.
The PTI and the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) each picked up four seats in the National Assembly.
Under Pakistan’s electoral system, party leaders can contest more than one seat in a general election. If they win more than one, they must give up the extra seats, which are then decided in a by-election.
In Sunday’s election voters decided on 11 National Assembly seats, including four vacated by Mr Khan, with his party failing to hold on to two of those.
In the country’s powerful provincial assemblies, the PTI picked up 11 seats and the PML-N seven.
Winners included former prime minister and opposition heavyweight Shahid Abbasi.
Before his result was declared he said he feared a rerun of alleged rigging in the July poll when his party accused the military establishment of doctoring the results.
He said: “I ask the chief election commissioner this – who is in charge at a polling station? I visited about 40 polling stations today where presiding officers were not in charge.
“Do you understand what I am saying? Answer me this,” Dawn newspaper quoted him as saying.
“Presiding officers had no authority whatsoever. This is what we call rigging.
“This is what we call the negation of public opinion. This is what we call disrespecting the people’s mandate.
“These are the things that lead to a country’s ruin.”
Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif was turned away at the ballot box for not bringing his government ID card.
Sunday’s voting passed without any of the violence that marred July 25’s election.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Samar Bilour, the widow of a candidate killed during the summer campaign, was elected in his place.
Mr Khan’s promises to clean up the country’s corrupt government while delivering better health care, employment, housing and education have run headlong into grim economic reality.
Last week, Pakistan began talks with the International Monetary Fund for the country’s 13th bailout since the late 1980s as it tries to find $12 billion (Dh44.07bn) to plug budget gaps.
Mr Khan blamed the chaos on mismanagement by the previous government but analysts said the tough medicine dictated by the IMF in return for a bailout is likely to hammer his political support.
A devaluing rupee plus rising interest rates, taxes and inflation are all expected to hit living standards.
“Certainly in the short term it poses some challenges to some of his policy priorities,” Jeremy Zook, associate director of Asia Sovereign Ratings at Fitch Ratings, told The National.
A devaluing rupee plus rising interest rates, taxes and inflation are all expected to hit Pakistan’s living standards