The party of the imprisoned former prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, won the most seats in parliamentary elections this past week, delivering a strong rebuke to the country’s powerful generals and throwing the political system into chaos.
While military leaders had hoped the election would put an end to the political turmoil that has consumed the country since Khan’s ouster in 2022, it has instead plunged it into an even deeper crisis, analysts said.
Never before in the country’s history has a politician seen such success in an election without the backing of the generals — much less after facing their iron fist.
In voting Thursday, candidates from Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, appeared to win about 97 seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, the country’s election commission reported Saturday. The military’s preferred party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, or PML-N, led by a three-time former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, won at least 73 seats, the commission said. Only seven seats were left unaccounted for — not enough to change the outcome as reported by the commission.
While candidates aligned with Khan were set to be the largest group in Parliament, they still fell short of a simple majority — setting off a race between the parties of Khan and Sharif to win over other lawmakers and establish a coalition government.
The success of Khan’s party was a head-spinning upset in an election that the military thought would be an easy victory for Sharif. Before last week’s election, Pakistan’s powerful generals had jailed Khan, arrested candidates allied with him and intimidated his supporters to clear his party from the playing field — or so they thought. Instead, the election results confirmed that Khan remains a formidable force in Pakistani politics, despite his ouster and subsequent imprisonment.
The vote also showed that Khan’s strategy of preaching reform and railing against the military has resonated deeply with Pakistanis — particularly young people — who are disillusioned with the political system.
Khan, a former cricket star turned populist politician, was sentenced to a total of 34 years in prison after being convicted in four separate cases on charges that included leaking state secrets and unlawful marriage, and that he has called politically motivated.
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