General elections were keenly awaited by all patriotic Pakistanis in the hope that these might produce a stable Government, which is need of the hour to salvage Pakistan from the economic challenges and put it on the path of progress and prosperity but results so far announced defy these expectations as people have given a split mandate and a hung parliament is unlikely to deliver as per demands of the time.
In the absence of a complete official count and tally, PTI has claimed victory in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies of Punjab and KP whereas PML(N) stalwart Ishaq Dar has claimed that his party has emerged as the largest single party both in the National Assembly and the Punjab Assembly. Position of PPP in Sindh Assembly elections remains unchallenged and the party might easily form the next Government in the province. Satisfactory performance in Balochistan has always been a hard task for all political parties and the same trend is visible for Elections-2024.
Something concrete might emerge when all the results of the National and the four provincial assemblies are officially announced but there will still be question marks about who will form the next government.
This is because, as usual, allegations of rigging are being leveled by the losing candidates on the plea they were leading the tally in initial stages. This is, in fact, the negative side of the progressive results as evolving numbers are exploited by the contesting candidates and parties to their favour for propaganda purposes.
Delay in announcement of results notwithstanding, there were no incidents of rigging on the polling day and post-polls rigging was not an option in the presence of elaborate procedure for entry and verification of the count as well as its sharing with polling agents and the general public. There is also uncertainty about the posture and behavior of the independents, who have been given mandate as candidates of the PTI.
While PTI voters are being appreciated for their enthusiasm for participation in polling despite various odds and restrictions the party is facing, there is no guarantee that the winning independent candidates would certainly show their allegiance to the party and the situation could change a lot if a significant number of them joins some political party.
Legal and constitutional road blocks were cleared by PML(N) but it could not muster the level of support that it visualized mainly because of the measures taken by the coalition government, which compounded miseries of the people and also because neither its leadership nor its candidates showed keen interest in electioneering and canvassing.
