Numbers game: Imran claims target score achieved
islamabad — The party of cricket star Imran Khan on Saturday claimed it had acquired the support of the lawmakers required to form a coalition government after winning this week’s polls, as a secular party angered over alleged fraud rallied in the northwest.
“People have voted us into power and God willing, we will form a government,” said Fawad Chaudhry, the spokesman for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). He did not say exactly how many lawmakers had agreed to join their future government, saying the announcement would be made when the National Assembly convenes next week.
His comment came hours after Pakistan’s elections oversight body released its final results, saying Khan won 115 of 269 contested seats in the National Assembly, while his nearest rival, Shahbaz Sharif ’s Pakistan Muslim League, won 64 seats. Initially it had said Khan won 116 seats. The party of former president Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan People’s Party, bagged 43 seats.
Chaudhry said the success of PTI in the elections meant the end of decades-long dynastic rule in Pakistan. Still, several members of Khan’s party are members of Pakistan’s traditional ruling elite. He brought them on board as so-called “electables” he needed to win at the polls.
Four newly elected independent lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly joined Khan’s party after meeting him on Saturday. It means Khan will try to form a coalition government in Punjab province, which has been the stronghold of Sharif since 1980s. —
islamabad — Pakistan election winner Imran Khan has not shied away from firebrand rhetoric during his 22 years in politics.
The following are some of his most controversial positions:
Pakistan’s former cricket captain is viewed as something of a liberal in the West, particularly in Britain where the Press remember his high-flying lifestyle and marriage to Jemima Goldsmith.
But Khan sparked outrage in January when he lambasted feminism as “a Western concept”, saying in an interview that it had “degraded the role of mother”.
Critics accused him of pandering to his conservative vote base.
Khan was accused of mainstreaming extremism by launching a full-throttled defence of blasphemy laws.
The ex-cricketer has earned the moniker “Taleban Khan” for repeatedly arguing for peace talks with militants and for his party’s alliance with Sami-ul-Haq, the socalled Father of the Taleban whose madrassas once educated Taleban stalwarts Mullah Omar and Jalaluddin Haqqani. In 2013 Khan even suggested that the Pakistani Taleban should be allowed to open an office in the country.
The previous year he had come in for criticism for his perceived lukewarm condemnation of the shooting of Malala Yousafzai.
Khan, 65, has railed repeatedly against United States drone strikes on Pakistani territory. He has claimed that the strikes have killed innocent civilians. In 2012 he was briefly removed from an international flight from Canada to New York and questioned by US immigration officials on his views about the strikes.
Khan was elected largely on an anti-graft ticket — he has described corruption as a “security risk” to Pakistan. —
We will definitely form our government in Punjab as we are in contact with 21 independent candidates
Fawad Chaudhry, PTI spokesman