Delivering a victory speech in a live broadcast following Wednesday's general elections in which his party leads the results tally, the former cricket star vowed to fight corruption and transform Pakistan into a welfare state.
Pakistan cricket legend turned opposition stalwart Imran Khan claimed victory on Thursday in the country's tense elections, following accusations of poll rigging by rival parties.
"God has given me a chance to come to power to implement that ideology which I started 22 years ago," Khan, 65, said in a televised speech from his house near the capital Islamabad.
Results were still being tallied on Thursday, hours after Khan's supporters took to the streets to celebrate winning an election that opponents have said the powerful military rigged in his favour.
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| Supporters of cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan, chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), celebrate outside his residence in Islamabad, Pakistan, a day after polling in the general election, on July 26, 2018. (Reuters). |
The leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), or Pakistan Movement for Justice, vowed to fight corruption and transform Pakistan into a welfare state.He said he would not live in the prime minister's palatial house and his government would decide what to do with the building.Khan also said his government would utilise all the governor houses of the country for public use.
Khan for resolution of Kashmir dispute
Khan called for "mutually beneficial" ties with Pakistan's on-off ally the United States, and offered an olive branch to arch-foe India, saying the two nations should resolve the long-simmering dispute over Kashmir.
It is a stunning rise for an anti-corruption crusader who spent much of his political career on the fringes of Pakistani politics.
The stock market shot up nearly two percent in early trading on relief that Khan was expected to be able to form a stable coalition.
Omar Samad — a former Afghan ambassador to Canada, France and Belgium — on what could Imran Khan's leadership mean for Pakistan's foreign policy.
PTI in commanding lead
With about half the votes counted from Wednesday's election, Khan's PTI was in a commanding lead in the nuclear-armed, Muslim-majority nation, the country's election commission said.
Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and rival Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) both said their monitors in many voting centres were either kicked out during counting or had not received the official notifications of the precinct's results, but instead got handwritten tallies that they could not verify.
"It is a sheer rigging. The way the people's mandate has blatantly been insulted, it is intolerable," Shehbaz, PML-N president and Nawaz Sharif's brother, told a news conference as the counting continued.
Khan offered to investigate all the claims of rigging and said he wants to "unite" the country under his leadership.
Pakistan faces a mounting economic crisis that is likely to require a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, although PTI has not ruled out seeking succour from China, Islamabad's closest ally.
Technical failures blamed for counting delays
Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) secretary Babar Yaqoob told reporters early on Thursday counting had been delayed by technical failures in an electronic reporting system and the tallying was now being conducted manually. The results had been due by around 2100 GMT on Wednesday.
"There's no conspiracy, nor any pressure in delay of the results. The delay is being caused because the result transmission system has collapsed," Yaqoob said.
With 48 percent of the total vote counted, Khan's PTI was listed by the ECP in its provisional results as leading in 113 of 272 contested National Assembly constituencies.
Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was ahead in 64 constituencies, and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), led by the son of assassinated two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, led in 42 constituencies.
Although Khan still appeared likely to fall short of the 137 seats needed for a majority in the National Assembly, he should have no problems finding coalition partners from smaller parties and independents.
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
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