Four months after Pakistan was originally scheduled to hold national elections, the country finally went to the polls on Thursday to pick its next federal government amid a pre-poll crackdown on former prime minister (PM) Imran Khan’s party and a climate of political and economic instability.
Mobile phone network was shut down amid expectation of unrest before it was partially restored.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani military has issued a statement saying at least 12 people, mostly security officials, were killed and 39 wounded in attacks aimed at disrupting the elections.
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Overall, 51 “cowardly terrorist attacks”, mostly in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, took place on election day, the army said on its public relations system, ISPR.
The statement added that five attackers were also killed.
Despite the incidents, the army congratulated the country “on the generally peaceful and violence free conduct of the general elections”.
“With the deployment of 137,000 army personnel and civil armed forces at approximately 6,000 selected most sensitive polling stations and over 7800 QRFs [Quick Reaction Forces], a safe and secure environment for the public was ensured,” it said, adding that “many potential threats were neutralized.”
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GLOBAL TRACKER understand that no prime minister has completed a full five-year tenure in Pakistan’s 77-year history.
In many cases occasions, prime ministers have been removed under a variety of circumstances, including corruption charges, direct military coups and forced resignations due to infighting in governing groups. There was also one assassination.
Others held the position for a limited time as caretakers to oversee new elections or to see out a dismissed prime minister’s tenure.
The year 1993 was particularly fraught, with five changes in the prime ministership.
The latest prime minister to be sacked is Imran Khan who on today’s election votes via postal service from prison.
Voters will cast their ballots for two legislators to represent their constituency one federally and the other provincially.
Aljazeera media network reports that 5,121 candidates contesting for the federal legislature and 12,695 for the provinces.
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The three leading political figures are Bilawal Bhutto Zardari aged 35, Imran Khan aged 71 who currently in prison and Nawaz Sharif, 74 three-time former prime minister who returned from a four-year self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom late last year.
SOURCE: ALJAZEERA AND OTHER NEWS AGENCIES