Pakistan Election 2018 Updates

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General elections were held in Pakistan on 25 July 2018 to elect the members of the 15th National Assembly and to the four Provincial Assemblies of Pakistan.^[1][2] Most of the opinion polls suggested an overall Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lead with Pakistan Muslim League (N) being the close second.^[3] There have been allegations of pre-poll rigging being conducted by the judiciary, the military and the intelligence agencies to sway the election results in favour of the PTI and against the PML (N).

Background

2013 elections

Further information: Pakistani general election, 2013 § Results

Following the elections in 2013, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), led by twice Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif, emerged as the largest party with 166 seats out of a total of 342 in the National Assembly. Although this was short of a majority, Sharif was able to form a government after several independents joined his party.^[12]
During the election campaign, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), led by prominent cricketer turned politician Imran Khan, was widely expected to have huge success in the polls. The party fell short of these expectations, instead only taking 35 seats. It became the 3rd largest party in the National Assembly and formed a coalition government in the restive north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.^[13]

Azadi March (2014)

Further information: Azadi March

PTI had initially conceded the elections to PML (N), although they asked for manual recounts to be carried out in several constituencies where rigging had been allegedly carried out.^[14][15] These calls were not answered by the government or the Supreme Court, despite a 2,100 page white paper by the party which allegedly contained evidence of vote-rigging in favour of the PML (N).^[16] An ‘Azadi March’ was started by Khan on 14 August 2014 which would demand the government to call a snap election. This march continued for 126 days, until the 2014 Peshawar school massacre, which forced Khan to end the long march for the sake of ‘national unity’.^[17] A judicial commission was formed by the government which would probe the allegations of vote-rigging: it found the election to have been conducted in a free and fair manner.^[18]

Panama Papers scandal (2016)

Further information: Panama Papers case

On 3 April 2016 the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) made 11.5 million secret documents, later known as the Panama Papers, available to the public.^[19] The documents, sourced from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, among other revelations about other public figures in many other countries, included details of eight offshore companies with links to the family of Nawaz Sharif, the then-incumbent Prime Minister of Pakistan, and his brother Shehbaz Sharif, the incumbent Chief Minister of Punjab.^[20] According to the ICIJ, Sharif's children Maryam Nawaz, Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz “were owners or had the right to authorise transactions for several companies”.^[21]
Sharif refused to resign. Instead, he attempted to form a judicial commission. This, however, was not done, which led opposition leader Imran Khan to file a petition to the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 29 August seeking the disqualification of Sharif from the premiership and as a member of the National Assembly. Political leaders Sheikh Rasheed and Siraj-ul-Haq also supported this petition. Khan called, once again, for his supporters to put Islamabad in lockdown until Sharif resigned, although this was called off soon before it was meant to take place.^[22]
On 20 April 2017, on a 3-2 verdict, the Supreme Court decided against the disqualification of Sharif: instead calling for a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to be created which would probe these allegations further.^[23]
On 10 July 2017, JIT submitted a 275-page report in the apex court.^[24][25] The report requested NAB to file a reference against Sharif, his daughter Maryam, and his sons under section 9 of National Accountability Ordinance. Additionaly, the report claimed that his daughter Maryam was guilty of falsifying documents, as she submitted a document from 2006 which used the Calibri font despite the font itself not being available for public use until 2007.^[26]

Disqualification of Nawaz Sharif (2017)

On 28 July 2017, following the submittal of the JIT report, the Supreme Court unanimously decided that Sharif was dishonest, therefore not fulfilling the requirements of articles 62 and 63 of the constitution which require one who holds public office to be ‘Sadiq and Ameen’ (urdu for ‘Truthful and Virtuous’). Hence, he was disqualified as Prime Minister and as a Member of the National Assembly.^[27][28] The court also ordered National Accountability Bureau to file a reference against Sharif, his family and his former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on corruption charges.^[29]

Electoral system

The 342 members of the National Assembly are elected by two methods in three categories; 272 are elected in single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post voting;^[30] 60 are reserved for females and 10 for ethnic and religious minority groups; both sets of reserved seats use proportional representation with a 5% electoral threshold.^[31] This proportional number, however, is based on the number of seats won rather than votes cast.^[32] To win a simple majority, a party would have to take 137 seats.^[33] For less distinguished and less fortunate people, who are interested in contesting election on any political party ticket, access to political leaders is very difficult.^[34]
General Elections 2018 will be held under new delimitation of constituencies which was result of 2017 Census of Pakistan.^[35] As per the notification issued on 5 March 2018, the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) will have three constituencies, Punjab 141, Sindh 61, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 39, Balochistan 16 and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) will have 12 constituencies in the National Assembly.^[36][37][38]
Likewise in provincial assemblies, Punjab will have 297 constituencies, Sindh 130, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 99 and Balochistan 51.

Electoral reforms

In June 2017 the Economic Coordination Committee approved the procurement of new printing machines with a bridge loan of 864 million rupees.^[39] The government has also developed new software for the Election Commission of Pakistan and NADRA to ensure a "free, fair, impartial, transparent and peaceful general election."^[40] The former Federal Law Minister Zahid Hamid elaborated that youth reaching the age of 18 will automatically be registered as voters when they apply for a CNIC from NADRA.^[40]