Blaze News - Pakistan

The unexpected victory of PTI-backed independent candidates in the February 8 general elections has left political parties, the establishment as well as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a quandary. The ECP was supposed to issue complete poll results within 14 days after the general elections. Yet it has not yet been able to decide if it should allot reserved seats to the independent candidates entering the National Assembly under the banner of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC). The polls oversight authority has already allotted reserved seats to all other parties. According to a notification, the ECP has given the PML-N 19 women’s seats and four minority seats. The PPPP has got 12 women’s seats and two minority seats and the MQM-P has been allocated four women’s seats and one minority seat. Other parties—the JUI-F, the PML-Q and the IPP—have received one seat each. The ECP has so far notified allocation of a total of 38 reserved seats for women and seven for minorities. It ha...

The curtain finally rises on the general elections as the nation prepares to go to the polls today. Despite delays and political hiccups, Pakistanis will now cast their votes, electing new national and provincial legislatures and ushering in a fresh constitutional journey. The road to these elections has been riddled with challenges with echoes of the past haunting the present. The 2018 polls had seen PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif caught in the cross hairs. However, this time around, the PTI chief, Imran Khan, and his party are facing a crackdown. The elections were earlier scheduled for November last year as the previous National Assembly was dissolved days before it could complete its term in August, 2023. However, unforeseen events threw out unexpected plot twists. Soon after a caretaker government was sworn in, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced that it could not hold general elections in the 90-day constitutional timeframe as it would have to conduct fresh del...

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari strongly criticised the "terrorist resettlement policy" of the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in the aftermath of the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. Bilawal called for a comprehensive inquiry into the release of outlawed individuals associated with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and questioned the decision to invite them to settle in the tribal areas of the country by former prime minister Imran Khan. Speaking at a press conference held at the Ministry of Interior after visiting the recently established 'The Wall of Martyrs' within the same building, Bilawal expressed concern over a decision that purportedly allowed engagement with terrorists previously defeated by the police, army, and people of Pakistan. “پارلیمان اور پاکستان کے عوام سے پوچھے بغیر ایک فیصلہ کے تحت جن دہشتگردوں کو آپ کی فوج، پولیس اور عوام نے قربانی دے کر ہروایا تھا ان کے ساتھ بات چیت کی گئی، جو سنگین دہشت گردی...

At a time when the fate of its ‘bat’ is hanging in balance, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has vowed that it would contest polls with or without the cricket symbol and wouldn’t give a walkover to its opponents in the upcoming general elections slated to be held on February 8, 2024. Despite PTI adhering to the legal requirements set by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and cautioning against any attempt to strip them of the bat symbol, a key official said that the party also has a plan B if the bat symbol is snatched from it. “PTI will contest polls with or without bat symbol,” a key PTI leader said while clarifying that the first choice would always be to have the bat as the election symbol. In case PTI is deprived of its symbol, the leader shared the party can go for getting a new symbol, admitting that the process can consume a lot of time if not expedited. To the question of what PTI would do if the bat is taken and no other symbol is allocated to the party before polls,...

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, along with his like-minded leaders, has not only reshaped the party's anti-establishment narrative, but boldly set aside the conventional belief that public perception held paramount significance in winning the elections. Known for his persistency, the PML-N president has finally managed to turn his party’s guns away from the military’s retired top brass, especially former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and ex-spymaster Lt-Gen Faiz Hameed, as the PML-N recently decided to drop its anti-establishment stance -- just days after beginning that journey. The party, which ensured that then army chief Gen Bajwa received an extension in service, had since been speaking out against the judges and generals, who it believed were responsible for bringing the PTI into power. However, the PML-N has lately decided to refrain from criticising them as it has adopted a new narrative that the party supremo, former premier Nawaz Sharif, had left everything to the Almig...

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is expected to announce the election schedule on Friday (today) after the body summoned an 'emergency meeting' following discussions with different stakeholders. The election watchdog had of late conducted back-to-back meetings with officials of different political parties to take into stock their position regarding elections and delimitation, among other things. In this key meeting, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja in Islamabad, the ECP is expected to deliberate on how it can reduce the time period for completing the delimitation process. A day earlier, the watchdog had vowed to expedite the delimitation of constituencies and announce a schedule for the upcoming general polls thereafter, alleviating concerns that the ballot could be deferred for an indefinite period to extend the rule of the interim government. The election supervisor gave assurance to the delegations of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP...

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday hinted that general elections might be carried out within the constitutionally mandated period of 90 days as it issued a statement pertaining to the delimitation process. The electoral watchdog said that it has already taken up the tasks involving the updation of voter lists and delimitation of constituencies and that the processes would be completed "simultaneously". "It is being said in some media circles that after the final publication of the constituencies, the ECP will update the election lists and that only after that it will be possible to announce and hold the election schedule," the statement read. "This is not true". "The ECP would like to clarify that the commission has started the delimitations of constituencies and the updation of voter lists and these two tasks will be completed simultaneously," it added. Notably, the clarification has come amidst speculations that the electoral w...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged people on Saturday to consider facts when comparing the "poor and pathetic performance of corruption-tainted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government" with that of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). The PML-N stalwart said that his party would accept the public mandate in the upcoming general elections. If the PML-N, under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif, is given another opportunity to serve the country, the party will restore the "real image" of Pakistan, claimed Shehbaz. He was addressing a ceremony after the inauguration of different development projects,  including a 19 kilometre-long Lahore bypass, which will link Kala Shah Kaku with the Lahore-Karachi Motorway at a cost of Rs35 billion. The project is touted to create about 27,000 job opportunities. The prime minister also broke ground for the expansion of the Lahore-Karachi Motorway Saggian Road and the main Ravi Bridge, which aims to ease vehicular traffic, help sa...

Pakistan’s civil and military leaders joined hands on Friday to tackle the pressing issues of food insecurity, malnutrition, and soaring import costs in the agriculture sector. The groundbreaking solution of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir, among others, came in the form of the Land Information and Management System – Centre of Excellence (LIMS-COE). The endeavour aims to transform unproductive acres, ensure food security, boost agricultural exports, and lighten the load on the national economy. The inauguration ceremony of LIMS – COE was attended by the prime minister, COAS, ministers of finance, defence, planning, information and others. The chief secretaries of the provincial governments, agricultural experts, senior army officials and several other key officials of the other countries were also present on the occasion. Read more: Youth empowerment key to development, prosperity of Pakistan: PM “Establishment of LIMS is the first excep...