The election commission has received 256 results out of 268 constituencies. PHOTO: AFP/ FILE
Contrary to most pre-poll predictions, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) emerged as the single largest party by securing 123 seats of the National Assembly, according to the results released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The election commission has received 256 results out of 268 constituencies, and are still waiting for results from 12 constituencies, a senior ECP official said.
In order to win a simple majority in the 342-member lower house, a party or coalition would need 172 seats. Of the total seats, 272 are for directly elected members while 60 are reserved seats for women and 10 are for minorities.
These reserved seats are allocated to parties as per their performance in the polls. As per the results from ECP, PML-N has secured 123 seats; Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) bagged 37 seats, followed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) which managed to get 27 seats. Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) won 18 seats, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) 10 seats, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) four seats, Jamaat-e-Islami three seats, Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) two seats, NPP and PML two seats each.
Eight parties, including the Awami National Party (ANP), Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), Qaumi Watan Party-Sherpao (QWP-S), Pakistan Muslim League-Zia (PML-Z), NP, AMLP, AJIP, All Pakistan Muslim league (APML) of General retd Parvez Musharraf have each won one seat in the National Assembly.
Additionally, 26 independents have also won seats in the lower house. Seven of the independent candidates belong to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 16 are from Punjab, two from Sindh and one from Balochistan.
PML-N, the majority party in National Assembly, according to provisional results, has already expressed its willingness to accommodate all political forces in the governments. According to a PML-N spokesperson, negotiations for possible coalitions are already underway.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 15th, 2013.
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@Rashid: Thank you Rashid. A day must come when hatred gives way to love. Love without boundaries. That is the day I wish for, as an Indian and as a human being.
@Murli Nair
Interesting idea. Good luck.
@Khan: Friend, I was looking at the world "technology index" and I found Pakistan 152 of the list. That is why I wished to have a more technologically advanced Pakistan. I wish to have a day when I could just come over to Pakistan, visit Mehergarh, be with some limited number of friends I have in Pak, may be including you, and atleast talk about how we live in these two countries? Ever since 1947, these two Governments (kindly remember I am not absolving Indian government either), separated us. To be personally honest, I wanted to do a Doctorate in "Ancient India - the death of Invasion Theory". I could not do it, because it is so difficult today, because my ancient India has been cut into 5 countries now. That does not matter; but if we can be good brothers and sisters across the border, I firmly believe we achieved something beyond the British rule and the Durrand Line; beyond Kashmir but in a sense we would have achieved "brotherhood beyond religious beliefs". I am just wishing for some positive days, since I am old, when my son can just cross the border and mingle with Pakistan without any problem.
@Murali Nair: It's not the lack of technology but lack of will from the government.
@Salman Saleem: Thank you Salman, hope to see a prosperous and technologically more advanced Pakistan in the near future. God bless.
@Ricky! PPP has won 32 seats and PTI has secured 31 seats, according to latest results by ECP. Results from 5 constituencies are still pending or the elections were postponed there. PPP has offered MQM to join it to form government in Sindh. MQM will likely accept the invitation and will return the favor in Center by helping PPP in getting the Opposition Leader slot with their 18 votes in National Assembly.
@Murali Nair! Vote Counting in Pakistan is manual. Results are held back from constituencies with neck-to-neck contests. As the opponents object every vote, and vote recounts are requested multiple times. That's why it takes long to declare results of those seats.
So the PML-N is comfortably set to form government in Center. They will take some parties from Sindh, KP and Balochistan to add national flare to the federal govt.
@Ricky: This news report has a potential mistake. According to Election Commission's website, PPP has bagged 31 seats so far, not 37. Which shows that PPP and PTI are stick neck-to-neck. However given that PPP and MQM are pondering upon forming a coalition, PTI might miss the chance of forming opposition, even if they somehow manage to secure more seats than PPP
Dear Friends from Pakistan: Out of curiosity, can you let me know one thing - I am from India - why does it take so long to have the official results out in Pakistan? Is it because the counting is manual? In India, generally all results are out officially on the same day; of course all counting in India is electronic in nature.
How many more days would it take for the EC to come up with all the results. Why are they coming out so slowly and why are they changing? Once there was the talk of PTI as leader of the opposition now it looks far behind the PPP. How could a number 3 be the leader of opposition?