[🇵🇰] Pakistan General Elections -- 2024

[ghazi]

Mirza family routed from Badin politics​

Feb 11, 00:46
The Mirza family of Badin, long-time adversaries of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and outspoken critics of the Zardari family, has been routed, losing all seats from the district for the first time since their entry into parliament in 1993.

Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, the former home minister of Sindh, his wife Dr Fehmida Mirza, Pakistan’s first female National Assembly speaker, and their son Barrister Hasnain Mirza failed to maintain their political dominance in Badin, attributing their decline to the “rifts” with the PPP.

According to a close associate of the Mirza family, “A financially weak Mirza family cannot defeat the PPP’s affluent landlords.”

 

[ghazi]

Protests erupt across Sindh over alleged poll rigging​

Feb 11, 00:28
A day after the election results were announced, protests erupted in several districts of Sindh on Saturday, as losing candidates and their political parties alleged irregularities in the vote counting system. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has called for widespread protests on February 11.

Maulana Rashid Mehmood Soomro, the provincial leader of JUI-F, led a sit-in outside a temporary office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in Sukkur district on Saturday. Soomro claimed that the results were manipulated to favour the Pakistan Peoples Party and warned of blocking the National Highway at 28 different locations in Sindh from Karachi to Kashmore. He set a deadline of 8am on February 11 for the ECP to accept their demands.

In Badin district, candidates from the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), led by former speaker of the National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza and former Sindh home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, along with their supporters, held a sit-in protest at DC Chowk. Dr Zulfiqar alleged organised rigging through the District Returning Officers (DROs) and Returning Officers (ROs) in these elections, accusing the PPP of imposing mafias in the guise of elected representatives on the people of Badin.

 

[ghazi]

Protests erupt across Sindh over alleged poll rigging​

Feb 11, 00:28
A day after the election results were announced, protests erupted in several districts of Sindh on Saturday, as losing candidates and their political parties alleged irregularities in the vote counting system. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has called for widespread protests on February 11.

Maulana Rashid Mehmood Soomro, the provincial leader of JUI-F, led a sit-in outside a temporary office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in Sukkur district on Saturday. Soomro claimed that the results were manipulated to favour the Pakistan Peoples Party and warned of blocking the National Highway at 28 different locations in Sindh from Karachi to Kashmore. He set a deadline of 8am on February 11 for the ECP to accept their demands.

In Badin district, candidates from the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), led by former speaker of the National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza and former Sindh home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, along with their supporters, held a sit-in protest at DC Chowk. Dr Zulfiqar alleged organised rigging through the District Returning Officers (DROs) and Returning Officers (ROs) in these elections, accusing the PPP of imposing mafias in the guise of elected representatives on the people of Badin.

 

[ghazi]

Three newly-elected independent MNAs join PML-N​

Feb 10, 23:04
Three newly-elected independent members of National Assembly announced allegiance to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Saturday, increasing the seats for Nawaz Sharif’s party two days after the general elections.

Barrister Aqeel, Raja Khurram Nawaz, and Mian Khan Bugti, successful independent candidates from various constituencies, have officially announced their decision to join the PML-N, adding to the party's growing strength.

 

[ghazi]

 

[ghazi]

JUI-F candidate concedes defeat to PTI, urges Nawaz to do the same​

Feb 10, 21:52
In an unprecedented move, Mufti Kifayat, the candidate from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) for NA-15, has declared that there were no malicious activities during the election, and the public has voted in favour of the PTI-backed candidate Shahzada Gustashap.

He urged the supreme leader of PML-N, Nawaz Sharif, to gracefully acknowledge defeat, asserting that his case is notably weak. Kifayat concluded by stating that he, too, accepts the election result.

 

[Old School]

Political horse-trading is going on right now.

 

[ghazi]

Imran Khan’s loyalists triumph, betrayers bite the dust​

Updated Feb 10, 19:05
The loyalists of jailed PTI founder Imran Khan – some of them political nobodies – have defied all odds and emerged triumphant, beating political juggernauts in the high-stakes general elections held on February 8. While Khan’s loyalists emerged victorious, those who betrayed him received humiliating drubbing despite having support of the powerful circles in the country.

The PTI was under the state’s wrath after the May 9 attacks on national security installations nationwide. Every effort was made to literally erase Khan’s party from the political arena by jailing its top leadership and workers, forcing them to change loyalties or give up politics, and imposing a media blackout on their activities.

It became extremely difficult to stay loyal to Khan.

Prominent among those who ditched Khan was Pervez Khattak, a former chief minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. He jumped ship to form a splinter group by the name of PTI-Parliamentarians. Sugar cartel Jahangir Tareen – who was once in the inner sanctum of Khan – also cobbled up a party, Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP), apparently at the behest of powers that be to woo PTI deserters.

However, both the parties received humiliating drubbing in the elections.