Pakistan: Anti-Khan Coalition Set to Form Government

Facts

• The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) announced late Tuesday that a power-sharing deal had been reached to form a coalition government. PML-N's Shehbaz Sharif and PPP's Asif Ali Zardari have been declared Pakistan's prime minister and president, respectively.¹
• In April 2022, the PML-N and PPP joined hands to oust former Prime Minister Imran Khan and ruled the country for about 16 months. However, the two legacy family-controlled parties competed as rivals in the just-concluded elections.²
• The deal wraps up days-long talks among parties that oppose Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), after the Feb. 8 general election delivered a hung parliament. Khan is serving multiple prison terms after a 31-year conviction on corruption charges.³
• In last month's balloting, the PML-N and PPP — reportedly backed by Pakistan's military — came second and third, respectively, securing 79 and 54 seats. Together they reached the 133 majority threshold to form a new government.⁴
• Following Tuesday's announcement, the PTI — which failed to claim a majority despite its affiliates winning the most parliamentary seats — accused its rivals of rigging the vote and stealing the nation's mandate 'to loot the country.'⁵
• This comes after a senior official admitted to changing election results on Saturday, acknowledging he 'converted the losers into winners' and to 'reversing margins of 70,000 votes in 13 national assembly seats.'⁶

Sources: ¹FOX News, ²Bloomberg, ³Guardian, ⁴Independent, ⁵CNN and ⁶Al Jazeera.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Time. As elections in this nuclear-armed nation were rigged from the beginning, with authorities carrying out blatant lawfare against Khan and his PTI, such an outcome as this was widely anticipated. What's surprising, however, is that the US has failed to take stronger action to ensure that its treaty ally has a free and fair vote, despite Biden arguing that promoting democracy overseas is the defining challenge of our time. Perhaps democratic values aren't that important to the White House after all.
• Narrative B, as provided by DAWN.COM. There's no valid evidence that rigging or controversy marred this polling process. However, the West has sought to meddle outrageously in Pakistan's internal affairs by voicing concerns about the vote and demanding probes into alleged irregularities. As a sovereign country, Pakistan must have well-established laws to disallow anti-state elements and ensure its elections are internationally respected.