ISLAMABAD: On February 8, a large number of people across the country exercised their right to vote to elect their representatives for national and provincial assemblies on 855 constituencies.
The 2024 elections surpassed the previous ones in 2018 in various aspects, including a record budget allocation of Rs48 billion, a substantial increase in the number of voters exceeding 50% of the total population, an unprecedented ratio of independent candidates, a total of nearly 18,000 candidates, and a substantial amount of paper required for printing 260 million ballots.
More than 1.4 million polling staff performed their duties at 90,675 polling stations — of which 16,766 were declared as extremely sensitive. To ensure voter turnout, February 8 was declared as a public holiday.
The polling kick-started at 8am, with delays in some areas and continued till 5pm throughout the country to mark the largest general election in the history of Pakistan, which is the world’s fifth largest democracy.
As the results trickled in, PTI backed independent candidates dominated and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) claiming to be in a position to form a majority government in the centre.
Latest Party position
| Party | National Assembly | Punjab Assembly | Sindh Assembly | Balochistan Assembly | KP Assembly |
| PPP | 52 | 10 | 82 | 9 | 4 |
| PTI-backed Independents | 97 | 116 | 12 | 0 | 79 |
| BNP | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| PML-N | 72 | 134 | 0 | 9 | 5 |
| MQM-P | 15 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| JUI-F | 3 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 8 |
| ANP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| JI | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| TLP | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| IPP | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Independents | 9 | 23 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
Meanwhile, Mian Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) candidate for the premiership, said Friday he seeks to form a united government after his party “emerged victorious” in the February 8 general election.
“I have tasked Shehbaz Sharif to meet Fazlur Rehman, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, and Asif Ali Zardari today,” Nawaz told a charged crowd in Lahore’s Model Town, which was there to listen to his “victory speech”.
However, as the results trickle in, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed candidates are leading with more than 90 seats to their name, while the PML-N is trailing behind.
The party’s top leaders, on the contrary, said that their candidates have won a majority of the seats and will form government in the centre.
“Alhamdulillah, the PML-N is the largest single party in the country today after the elections.”
The three-time former premier, who ended his self-imposed exile in October last year, urged all the national institutions and politicians to play a positive role in steering the country out of the ongoing crises.
Referring to the country’s fragile economy, Nawaz said: “At least 10 years are needed for bringing stability to the country.”
He said that it was the responsibility of the PML-N to steer the country out of the crises.
The PML-N supremo said that they respect the mandate of all the political parties and independent candidates, and invited them to sit with the former ruling party for the sake of the country
“Our sole agenda is a prosperous Pakistan,” he added.
Hinting at forming a collation government, the PML-N top leader said that the party’s President Shehbaz Sharif would meet PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, JUI-F Chief Fazalur Rehman, MQM-P Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and other leaders today.
Earlier in the day, PML-N leader Ishaq Dar said that the successful independents have contacted his party and shown interest in joining it.
However, PTI — which also claims to have the biggest number of National Assembly seats — ruled out forging an alliance with the PML-N or Pakistan Peoples Party to form the federal government.
