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

In a premature victory speech, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said he hoped to have “better relations with neighbours” after forming the new government.

“God willing, we will have better relations with our neighbours,” Mr Sharif said, in what seemed to be an indirect message to India.

“Our agenda will be to have a better relationship with the world and our neighbours...,” he said.

Pakistan’s election commission hasn’t officially announced the results yet as both Mr Sharif and candidates backed by ex-prime minister Imran Khan have independently claimed victory.

American congressman Ro Khanna alleged that the Pakistani military has been “rigging” the country’s just-held general elections to “prop up” its candidate.

“There is huge news today out of Pakistan, the most consequential since the country’s founding in 1947. Here’s what’s going on. The military had supported the current prime minister, but most of the people in Pakistan voted for Imran Khan,” Mr Khanna said in a video shared on social media.

“The military basically has been raging, at least that’s the allegation, rigging the election results to be interfering to prop up their military candidate,” he said, adding that the US should not recognise an “illegitimate government” in Pakistan.

Mohsin Dawar, former parliament member and leader of the National Democratic Movement (NDM), has been taken to a hospital after he was injured in a firing incident in North Waziristan’s Miranshah.

Dawar’s party leader Bushra Gohar demanded an inquiry into the firing and “arrests of the culprits.”

“I also wanted to ask them to make arrangements for shifting Dawar and others critically injured to Peshawar,” she said.

Ex-human rights minister Shireen Mazari also posted on X that the incident was“totally condemnable“.

Hitting back at criticism by world leaders over the conduct of its parliamentary elections, Pakistan said its polls were conducted “peacefully and successfully.”

Pakistan’s foreign office said it was surprised by “the negative tone of some of these statements, which neither take into account the complexity of the electoral process nor acknowledge the free and enthusiastic exercise of the right to vote by tens of millions of Pakistanis”.

It said there was “no nationwide internet shutdown” and “only mobile services were suspended for the day to avoid terrorist incidents on polling day.”

Former prime minister Imran Khan’s party is attempting to form a government as candidates he backed in the general election had won the most, a senior aide to the former cricketer-turned-politician said.

The party’s interim chief Gohar Ali Khan urged all institutions to respect the party’s mandate.

Mr Ali Khan said at a press conference that if complete results were not released by Saturday night, the party would hold a peaceful protest the following day.

Candidates backed by the party of jailed Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan plan to form a government, a senior aide to the former prime minister said on Saturday, urging supporters to peacefully protest if final election results are not released.

The nation of 241 million people voted on Thursday in a general election, as the country struggles to recover from an economic crisis and battles militant violence in a deeply polarised political environment.

Both Khan and his main rival, three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, declared victory on Friday, increasing uncertainty over who will form the next government at a time when swift policy action is needed to address multiple challenges.

Gohar Khan, the chairman of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-Insaf (PTI) party who also acts as the former prime minister’s lawyer, called on “all institutions” in Pakistan to respect his party’s mandate.

At a press conference, he said if complete results of the polls were not released by Saturday night, the party would hold peaceful protests on Sunday outside government offices returning election results around the country.

Hundreds of Khan’s supporters rallied in the northwestern city of Peshawar led by two of his aides who said they had been declared losers despite having won the polls.

“We never expected it would happen to us,” said Taimur Khan Jhagra, one of Khan’s former provincial ministers.

The protesters chanted slogans against what they called a vote fraud.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Friday his party had emerged as the single largest group and would talk to other groups to form a coalition government.

By 5 p.m. (1200 GMT) on Saturday, results were still not in for 10 of the 265 seats contested in the election - 48 hours after the polls closed.

The latest tally, posted on the election commission’s website, showed independent candidates had won 100 seats, with Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) taking 72 seats.

At least 90 of the victorious independent candidates were backed by Khan and his party, a Reuters analysis showed - putting them well ahead of Sharif’s party.

Khan’s supporters were running as independents because they had been barred from contesting the polls under his party’s electoral symbol by the election commission for not complying with electoral laws.

Despite the ban and Khan’s imprisonment for convictions on charges ranging from leaking state secrets to corruption to an unlawful marriage, millions of the former cricketer’s supporters came out to vote for him, even though he cannot be part of any government while he remains in prison.

However, under Pakistan‘s electoral laws, independent candidates are not eligible to be allocated reserved seats, 70 of which are meant to be distributed according to party strength. Sharif’s party could get up to 20 of these seats.