Pakistan Election 2018: Lahore – This Way to Islamabad

In Naya Pakistan? The results of the general election in Pakistan Pointing to a landslide victory of politician Imran Khan and his Tehreek-e-Insaf Pakistan, The Sunday Express looks at the results of this election, probably Pakistan's most polarized in recent history, for the country. point of view of Lahore

On July 25, 20-year-old Saleem, in a polling station in the Lahore suburb of Shahdara, tells 19659007] "We are not bothered by Panama (the scandal that cost Nawaz Sharif his job as prime minister) or money hidden abroad, he has brought peace," he said. said Saleem, speaking of new roads, bridges and electricity supply in Lahore

In a nearby polling station, women were also enthusiastic about Sharifs: "Nawaz did a good job. We have roads, subway buses and no loads. "

It turned out that all this did not matter.The Sharifs could seem invincible on the streets of Lahore – their Muslim Pakistani league (Nawaz) won 10 out of 14 parliamentary seats in the city – but in the rest of Punjab province, there was a clue in the profusion of posters depicting the bald symbol cricket -mouse and the face of a former cricket star

At polling station in Rawalpindi, Punjab. PML (N) won 10 of 14 seats in Lahore but lost Punjab to PTI. (Reuters Photo)

July 25 was Imran Khan's day not only in Punjab, which sends the largest number of elected representatives to the National Assembly (141), but across Pakistan. The road to Islamabad is across the Punjab, but Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has convinced not only Pakistan's largest province, but also Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and has taken Karachi, the provincial capital of Pakistan. Sindh and the largest city in the country. The only saving grace for the PML (N) is that it is neck and neck with the PTI of the Punjab Assembly.

After a 22-year struggle in the shifting sands of Pakistani politics, PTI moved to a simple majority at the Center and is formed to form two provincial governments – at the PK and, with the likely help of the Independents , in Punjab.

Pakistanis woke up to a Pakistan Naya, not yet promised by Imran Khan, but certainly changed one. There is no crowds jostling at Raiwind, the vast Sharif family estate on the outskirts of Lahore, no big cars that have invaded important people as they did at the height of the popularity of the PML (N). Nawaz is in prison with his daughter Maryam. His brother Shehbaz, who won both the seat of the National Assembly in Lahore and two seats in the provincial badembly of Punjab, is trying to propel the PML (N) to power in the Assembly from Punjab, but it's a warning shot. His next challenge is to take his brother and niece out of prison.

Proponents of the ITP at a rally in Karachi. The party emerged as the largest political force in the city. (Reuters Photo)

All the action has now moved to Imran Khan 's mbadive house in Bani Gala, a suburb of Islamabad. His security blanket was raised to VVIP levels, three rings of policemen now guard the house, and an ambulance and fire offers are on the doorsteps.

The PML (N) shouted bad, alleging that the account was fixed and threatened to take to the streets. But despite allegations about a document called Form 45, Imran Khan is the prime minister designate.

In more ways than one, Imran was the most "favorite" candidate. The kind of pan-Pakistani mandate that he received was last seen in the 1970s, for Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. It is generally believed that election results are always predetermined, and that the winner always has the blessings of the country's military establishment. Clearly though, there was something else that worked for Imran.

The pre-election help aside, the vote itself seems to have been clean as evidenced by the number of institutional favorites who have lost. On the other hand, two leaders of the leftist, anti-establishment Pashtun Tahafuz movement won South Waziristan

. All the new parties that have mysteriously multiplied before the elections have lost. The two religious parties, Jamiat-e-Ulema Islami and Jamat-e-Islami, executed miserably. Tehreek-e-Labbaik, an extremist group led by cleric Khadim Rizvi, and Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek of Hafiz Saeed, a front of Jamat-ud-Dawa / Lashkar-e-Taiba, also failed to win a seat. Aurangzeb Farooqi, a UN-designated terrorist Ahle Wal Sunnah Jamaat, was beaten by a female candidate of the ITP.

Pakistani soldier stands guard on bus carrying election staff and voting materials at newsstands in Karachi. (AP Photo)

But these groups do not disappear. The biggest surprise was that Labbaik was number two in Lyari, Karachi, a bastion of the PPP where Bilawal Bhutto, the eldest of Benazir Bhutto, was pushed to third place in the family rankings. Labbaik remains a great presence. Khadim Rizvi threatening to do a sit-in of this kind that paralyzed Islamabad two years ago, putting Sharif's government on its knees and forcing the army to talk with him to end the cheating . dead end. This time, however, Labbaik may not get the same indulgence. But it is clear from visits to the Punjab offices that the same young Pakistan who fueled the victory of the PTI contributed to the rise of Labbaik.

Much depends then on what promises Naya Pakistan Imran. 19659007] Unlike his predecessor, who took the microphone a bit too fast on the night of the 2013 elections, Khan took his time before making a victory speech, appearing in front of the media one day after the last vote, exuding confidence . Dressed in a white kameez shalwar, he made a measured speech, seemingly delivered to his liking, hugging with all his might – from election promises to a new welfare state model of Medina.

As he promised to act as prime minister for all Many Pakistanis hailed him as the first true leader of Pakistan after Jinnah and said that they had the goose bumps that l # 39; listening. Yet others have pointed out his entourage, including the party's chief financier, Jahangir Tareen, whom the country's Supreme Court has disqualified for life, for the same reasons as Nawaz Sharif

as badysts attempt to explain the broad victory of the PTI. there are questions to solve. Will these elections be a harbinger of political stability or is it a short-lived experience for a mid-term election? Will the establishment be happy to let the PTI reign over the Center, the PK and the Punjab? And how will the other parties behave vis-à-vis the ITP?

"The PML-N had a confused narrative: While Shehbaz Sharif was selling development to his constituents, Nawaz Sharif adopted an aggressive mode, but only one story worked and that's what the PTI was about. Is attacked – corruption, "says senior badyst Suhail Warraich, who had predicted the fall of the PML (N) since the Panama scandal and wrote a column in Urdu. "The party is over."

Warraich believes that people were tired of the same old parties and were swept away by the ITP's "change" slogan. What Warraich sees as a wave for the PTI, Nusrat Javeed, the TV host, attributes a "mix of party popularity and the 61 possible switches" from the PML (N) to the PTI.

The ITP seems comfortable for the moment, holding the reins of at least three governments. Javeed, however, is more concerned about economic stability, "that I do not see in the near future." "Our economic stability is closely tied to our foreign policy and Imran Khan has no big plans on it – he may be popular in India, but it's the popularity of an individual."

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