Pakistan election – live: Imran Khan’s PTI calls for protest amid concerns of fraud in inconclusive polls

Ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif has declared victory in Pakistan’s general elections – even though independent candidates backed by rival Imran Khan were reportedly in the lead.

Mr Sharif said his Pakistan Muslim League was the largest party after more than 150 National Assembly results were announced.

The Sharif family contesting the Pakistan elections have won all seats contested in Lahore, according to the early results announced today.

While PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif won against a candidate backed by Imran Khan by a whopping 171,024 votes, his daughter Maryam Nawaz won the Punjab seat by 83,855 votes.

His younger brother Shehbaz Sharif, who briefly served as Pakistan’s prime minister, has won his Lahore seat by 105,960 votes.

Lahore has long been a political stronghold for the Sharif family, although Khan’s PTI made significant inroads in the city at the last election.

Nawaz Sharif did not disclose how many seats his party had won after he claimed victory, and counting is still under way in the last few of the 265 seats that went to the polls.

The latest count published by the election panel showed his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) winning 42 seats, much below the 133 mark needed to stake claim to form a government.

Mr Sharif said his deputies would meet other political parties later in the day to talk about forming a coalition government.

Independent candidates, most backed by Imran Khan, have won 86 out of 201 counted seats so far in the general election, according to the election body’s website.

Nawaz Sharif has admitted his party does not have the numbers to form government itself.

All parties in Pakistan should get together to form a government, he said.

In a change of tack, he said he would seek a coalition.

Suriya Bibi is the first woman to secure victory in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Chitral city, reported Dawn.

Bibi is a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed candidate and has won 18,914 votes in the region, according to the provisional results announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

She has defeated the JUI-F candidate Shakeel Ahmad.

Imran Khan’s PTI party was on course for a stunning victory in Pakistan’s general election on Friday in a set of much-delayed results that led to widespread accusations of vote tampering and rigging:

An expert on democracy in Pakistan says the election result is unprecedented.

“In the face of thousands of arrests and an internet blackout, candidates backed by former prime minister Imran Khan’s party have dealt a blow to military-backed candidate Nawas Sharif, leaving him unable to form a majority government,” said Maya Tudor, Associate Professor at the Blavatnik School of Government.

“This is unprecedented in Pakistan’s recent history where every election has gone the military’s way.

“This is a really important result, even more so because Pakistan is a nuclear-armed country that is not only being squeezed economically and democratically, but also under immense pressure as ground zero for climate change, as the floods in 2022 demonstrated.

“The most hopeful moment in Pakistan’s brief democratic history was the 2006 pact between two political parties – the PPP and the PML-N – who agreed not to appeal to the military in a bid to claim the upper hand.

“We don’t know what the future holds this time but it’s vital now that the country gains stability.”

Jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan has claimed victory, hours after rival Nawaz Sharif did so.

In an audio-visual message created using artificial intelligence and shared on his social media account, Khan rejected Sharif’s earlier claim to victory.

Khan called on his supporters to celebrate a win that was achieved despite what he calls a crackdown on his party.

Independent candidates backed by Khan won the most seats in Thursday’s national election, despite his being in jail and his party barred from the polls.

With 90 per cent of the 266 National Assembly results announced by the election oversight body, candidates backed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI, had won 98 seats.

The Pakistan Muslim League party of three-time premier Sharif, had 67 seats.

However, with a third major party in the mix, it was too soon for any party to declare victory.