Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday claimed victory in the country’s general election in an audiovisual message created using artificial intelligence and shared on his X account on social media.
In the message, usually delivered verbally through his lawyers, Khan’s AI version rejected rival and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s earlier claim to victory.
Khan called on his supporters to celebrate the victory achieved despite what he calls a crackdown on his party, telling them: “I had faith in you. Your huge rise scared everyone. No one can stop us. Do not be afraid. To celebrate.’
Independent candidates backed by Khan won the most seats in Thursday’s national election, despite him being jailed for an illegal marriage and his party banned from the ballot box.
They defied pollsters, who said a military-backed campaign of mass arrests and intimidation would lead to the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), a party backed by Sharif, winning, putting him on track would come for a fourth term as president. Prime Minister.
Imran Khan (pictured) called on his supporters to celebrate the victory achieved despite what he calls the crackdown on his party
A supporter of convicted former Prime Minister Imran Khan wears a hat celebrating his party
So far, independent candidates backed by Imran Khan have won the most seats
But independent candidates won 98 of the 265 contested seats, enough to form the largest bloc in the country’s parliament but not enough for an outright majority.
The Pakistan Muslim League-N won a total of 66 seats, while the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), led by the son of an assassinated former prime minister, won 51 seats.
At the time of publication, 25 seats went to other parties, while another 42 seats need to be convened.
The race for one seat was postponed after a candidate was murdered. The final results will be announced at midnight local time.
Sharif claimed victory after saying that PML-N would approach the PPP and other parties to form a ruling coalition.
His claim comes just a day after he rejected the idea of a coalition government.
It is not known whether PPP will take over the deal as the party’s leader heavily criticized PML-N during the campaign.
Britain, the US and the EU have all expressed serious concerns about the way Pakistan’s elections were conducted.
Pakistan cut off all mobile phone and data services across the country on election day, a move that was widely condemned.
The Interior Ministry said “precious lives have been lost” in recent militant attacks and the “security measures (were) essential to maintain law and order and counter potential threats.”
Two political candidates were shot dead ahead of national elections, while another 28 were killed in twin bomb attacks by Islamic State outside the offices of political candidates.
Voters in Pakistan must rely on a government-run text messaging service to confirm which polling stations they are registered to vote at.
Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif (pictured, right) next to his daughter Maryam Nawaz (pictured, left)
Supporters of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
NetBlocks, a global internet watchdog, said data confirmed there was disruption to mobile phone and internet services on election day
NetBlocks, a global internet watchdog, said data confirmed there was an outage in mobile phone and internet services “confirming widespread user reports of outages.”
“The ongoing Internet outage on election day in Pakistan is among the largest in severity and scale we have observed in any country,” NetBlocks director Alp Toker told AFP.
“This practice is inherently undemocratic and is known to limit the work of independent election observers and cause irregularities in the voting process.”
There were also allegations that political activists had been arrested in the run-up to the elections.
Lord David Cameron, the British Foreign Secretary, said in a statement today: ‘We recognize… serious concerns about the fairness and lack of inclusiveness of the election. We regret that not all parties were formally allowed to participate in the elections and that legal procedures were used to prevent some political leaders from participating.”
The US, meanwhile, called for an investigation into allegations that the military influenced the election. The State Department said in a statement: “We condemn electoral violence… and are concerned about allegations of interference in the electoral process. Claims of interference or fraud must be fully investigated.”
The EU also joined calls for an official investigation into the elections, adding: We deplore the lack of a level playing field due to the inability of some political actors to participate in the elections, restrictions on freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, both online and offline, restrictions on access to the internet, as well as allegations of serious interference in the electoral process, including arrests of political activists.”
Neighboring Iran, however, congratulated Pakistan on the election, with the Foreign Ministry saying it “wished greater prosperity for the brotherly, friendly and neighborly country of Pakistan.”
Soldiers were deployed to monitor the elections
The elections took place amid security measures, including mobile and internet restrictions
Earlier this week, Khan said his imprisonment was an ‘attempt to humiliate him’
Earlier this week, Khan said his imprisonment was an “attempt to humiliate him” and vowed he would “rather die” than make a deal with authorities.
Pakistan’s former prime minister and his wife Bushra Bibi were sentenced to seven years in prison on Saturday after a court ruled they had broken the law that requires a woman to wait three months before remarrying.
Bibi was previously married to a man who claimed they divorced in November 2017, less than three months before she married Khan on January 1, 2018. Bibi has said that they divorced in August 2017.
Khan has branded the conviction – his third in two weeks – as an attempt to “humiliate and disgrace” him and his wife, adding that this was the first time in fourteen years that someone had been jailed in Pakistan over a alleged illegal marriage.
The latest verdict follows another case in which Khan, 71, and Bibi, 49, were sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption last Wednesday.
The former cricketer was also sentenced to ten years in prison a day earlier for leaking state secrets. His sentence totals 31 years, but will be served concurrently.
Khan previously called the convictions an attempt to undermine him politically but remained defiant, vowing that he has not accepted a deal and would “rather die” than make one in the future, local media said.
Bibi is Khan’s third wife, after Jemima Goldsmith, who was married to the former sportsman for nine years, and former BBC weather girl Reham Khan, who spent just 10 months with Khan.
Bibi and Khan denied violating the three-month waiting period – a requirement of Islamic law and enforced by Pakistan. Khan and his family insist the trial is politically motivated.
More to follow.