Daily Times

The 2018 elections are now over, and we can sit and take stock of what went on during the polls. The overall voter turnout fell from 55.02 per cent in 2013 to 51.7 per cent in 2018.

Pre-election debaters believed that the Khan would have to face a hung parliament. Although Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) manage to bag 116 seats in the National Assembly, it still needs 16 more to form government.

Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will easily elect their chief ministers as Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and PTI respectively have sufficient MPAs to form government. The Balochistan Assembly will elect its CM with a Balochistan Awami Party (BAP)-led coalition.

But the bastion of Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz (PML-N) is challenged by PTI. Punjab has become the Battle of Panipat between PML-N and PTI because grabbing Punjab is equivalent to grabbing Pakistan. According to the election results, PML-N is leading with 129 seats, whereas PTI has managed to win 123. The party that stretches to the magic number will dominate in Punjab.

It is the independent candidates that will help either party form the government. If they are unable to, a hung parliament may prevail, which will be a hurdle for the ruling party, and may at any time paralyze the Punjab government.

Imran Khan said that accountability will start from the top without any witch-hunts against his opponents. On the rigging fiasco, Imran Khan said that his government will take all constitutional steps to address the genuine complaints of the political parties

The independents are meeting PTI’s chief regularly. Meanwhile Jahangir Tareen is also reaching out to MPAs and MNAs. On the other side, Shehbaz Sharif is also reactivating his contacts within PPP, and is looking to form the government. However, PPP has denied forming a coalition government with PML-N.

Leaving the number game aside, the most interesting development was the All Parties Conference (APC) called by Moulana Fazlur Rahman in which every party has levelled the allegation of rigging. Imran Khan is the original trendsetter and these parties are only following suit.

Previously, MMA President Moulana Fazlur Rahman has also threatened to boycott parliament — which didn’t last for atleast a week. Although PPP has also given the same verdict on election 2018 but they have accepted the results likewise in 2013 and avoided the APC. PML-N chief Shehbaz Sharif attended the APC but opted out of boycotting the parliament. A delegation of PPP also met Moulana Fazlur Rahman to convey the need for a smooth transition. After which all parties decided to form a Grand Opposition Alliance (GOA) in the parliament and vowed to bring on a strong opposition.

For the record, a majority of party heads that attended the press conference have failed to shield their own seats in parliament. In this discourse, a narrative is also circulating that this anger is only over losing their own seat, which seems to be realistic. A similar situation appeared in 2013 but none of the parties urged the government to investigate because all of these leaders were present in the assembly.

Meanwhile, in ‘New Pakistan’ the country actually witnessed a ‘New Khan’. Throughout his speech, Imran Khan was humble. To avoid any crisis, Imran Khan said that accountability will start from the top without any witch-hunts against his opponents. On the rigging fiasco, Imran Khan said that his government will take all constitutional steps to address the genuine complaints of the political parties.

Ironically, knowing the transparency of the elections, one can only dream to see the true mandate in Pakistan, otherwise the rigging saga will keep on repeating if institutions are not built. Today, Khan is the beneficiary of the election that is why he prefers to remain silent.

Khan may have made a good gesture in his speech, but his government may end up enjoying the fruits of its labour courtesy its sit-ins. The maturity of PPP and PML-N has saved PTI from any vandalism.

The writer is an academic. He tweets @muhd_hani

Published in Daily Times, August 2^nd 2018.