'Free, fair elections only solution'

Former senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar on Saturday said that Pakistan's political instability came from a refusal to respect electoral outcomes.

Speaking at ThinkFest, he said the first and last solution to the problem was free and fair polls. "The practice of discarding election results must come to an end."

He said that most elections in recent years had been fought on a "victim card," adding that at different times Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan were propelled to victory on narratives of political victimhood.

"The cost of political infighting was paid by citizens."