Imran Khan wins Pakistan bypolls, calls for early general election

ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s landslide victory in crucial byelections, grabbing six out of eight National Assembly seats, has dealt a serious blow to a fragile government that has less than 10 months left in office unless earlier general elections are called in the country. Khan once again asked the government to announce a fresh general election.
An early general election has been one of Khan’s key demands since his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) was ousted from power by a coalition of more than 13 parties in April through a vote of no-confidence in parliament. Instead of staying in parliament, Khan and his party’s 131 legislators had resigned en masse in an attempt to make way for a new election.
Since then, he has been rigorously campaigning in public to outsmart his political rivals through narratives that have found much traction among the masses, particularly the youth. Before coming to power in 2018, Khan’s politics had revolved around a narrative of “Naya (new) Pakistan”. This time, it has been “Haqeeqi Azadi (true freedom)”. Khan calls his removal from office a “regime-change conspiracy” hatched by the US in collaboration with Pakistan’s military establishment and some of the ruling coalition parties.
A resounding victory by PTI in July bypolls on provincial assembly seats in Punjab had intensified pressure on the beleaguered coalition government at the centre, prompting the NA speaker to accept the resignations of 11 PTI legislators, including two women lawmakers elected on reserved seats. Elections were held on eight of those seats on Sunday, in which the PTI won six, losing two seats to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Multan and Karachi — which it had won in the 2018 general elections.
As the ruling multi-party coalition, including the PML-N and the PPP, had fielded joint candidates on all seats, Imran Khan was PTI’s sole candidate on seven of the eight NA seats and he won six of them, breaking his own record of winning five NA seats in 2018. Meanwhile, the PTI also won two out of three Punjab Assembly seats that were up for grabs. The ruling Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz (PML-N) secured only one provincial assembly seat, in Sheikhupura, thus continuing to lose its influence in cities of Punjab that were previously described as its strongholds. The PML-N, with support from its allies, had fielded candidates against Khan in Faisalabad (former Lyallpur) and Nankana Sahib. It lost both seats by a big margin.
“The PML-N destroying its vote base and eviscerating its political capital in a few short months is a truly monumental achievement in the history of Pakistan politics,” journalist Cyril Almeida posted on Twitter.
Stopping short of giving a final date for his long-awaited call for a final date for his march to Islamabad, Imran Khan said at a press conference on Monday: “I am giving them (government) time just for the sake of the country. I repeat that they still have time to announce elections, and if they don’t, I will begin my march, and my preparations are almost complete.”
He termed the bypolls a “public referendum”, saying the nation wants “immediate elections as it has rejected this imported government”. He reiterated that a high-profile appointment such as that of the army chief should not be made by “criminals like Nawaz or Zardari”. “The army chief should be appointed on merit,” he said.