Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Thursday evening held its executive committee meeting and decided the party "would play the role of a strong opposition" in the National Assembly against cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf, which obtained a clear edge over the other parties in the general election.
Election officials said an official count confirming Pakistan's next government was expected in the early hours of Friday. More than a dozen TV channels projected, based on undisclosed methodologies, that Imran's party would get as many as 119 seats of the 270 national assembly seats contested, even though the counting of votes remains very slow. A majority of 137 seats is needed to form a government.
PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif, brother of jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who chaired the meeting, said they would write congratulation letters to the winning candidates and appreciation letters to the losing candidates, Dawn reported.
Sharif said the PML-N would raise a strong voice against the alleged poll rigging, adding that the party would "also provide available evidence of the rigging to the Election Commission of Pakistan".
Earlier on Thursday, Shehbaz rejected all poll results as he cited complaints of irregularities from across the country.
Shehbaz in a presser pointed out that other political parties too had raised similar objections.
He said that official results of all constituencies in Lahore had been held up while results of far-flung town and cities in Punjab had been announced.
The Election Commission, Shehbaz claimed, had stopped issuing "Form 45" to PML-N polling agents, adding that they had all been evicted from booths before the counting process was initiated.
Form 45 is known as the statement of the count, according to the poll body. It is supposed to show the number of valid votes for each contesting candidate and ballot papers excluded from the count.
Pakistan's Election Commission has not yet released official final results, but Imran has maintained a commanding lead, according to projections by many television stations. It was still unclear, however, if Imran will win a simple majority or have to form a coalition government.
Bigwigs lose
In a blow to the Pakistan's People's Party, party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari lost two of the three constituencies he contested in to PTI candidates. Shehbaz won in only one (Lahore) of four constituencies he contested in; the PML-N chief lost in Karachi, Swat and Dera Ghazi Khan.
Imran won in all five constituencies he contested from.
