Pakistan police threaten crackdown after Khan party calls protests over alleged election rigging
- Final results have given candidates backed by party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan the lead, but it says it would have won more seats if not for vote rigging
- Independents cannot form a government, and the country faces weeks of political uncertainty as rival parties negotiate possible coalitions
Pakistan police warned on Sunday they would come down hard on illegal gatherings after the party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan urged supporters to protest alleged rigging in last week’s election.
Independent candidates – most linked to Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party – took the most seats in the polls, scuppering the chances of the army-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to win a ruling majority.
But independents cannot form a government, and the country faces weeks of political uncertainty as rival parties negotiate possible coalitions.
PTI leaders claim they would have won even more seats if not for vote rigging.
A nationwide election-day mobile telephone blackout and the slow counting of results led to suspicions the military establishment was influencing the process to ensure success for the PML-N.
“Throughout Pakistan elections were manipulated in a subtle way,” PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan told a press conference on Saturday, calling on supporters to “protest peacefully” on Sunday.