Crackdown Against PTI Amid Poll Trickery Allegations

Police fire teargas on supporters of Imran Khan amid turmoil as several parties claim they would be forming government

Police fired teargas to disperse supporters of Imran Khan as protests broke out across Pakistan amid allegations of widespread vote-rigging targeting the former prime minister’s political party and other nationalist groups in the general election.

The results of the election, which took place on Thursday, gave a surprise first place to Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which won the most seats despite facing a stringent crackdown by the country’s powerful military establishment.

But with no clear majority winner, the country remained in a state of turmoil as several parties claimed they would be forming a government, and protests shut down swathes of the country.

An unprecedented wave of popularity won PTI-affiliated candidates more than 90 parliamentary seats but it is not enough to form a majority government. Khan’s party claims that the real number of seats it won is more than 150 and has alleged systematic fraud in the counting and recording of the votes. It is challenging dozens of the results in the courts.

PTI defied a months-long crackdown that hindered campaigning and forced candidates to run as independents with a combined showing that still challenged the party’s rivals.

Khan, a former cricketing star, was barred from contesting the election and handed several lengthy prison sentences in the days leading up to the vote.

On Sunday, the party organised protests outside election commission offices in constituencies across the country where alleged rigging took place. In Lahore, hundreds of riot police gathered to break up the PTI protests and in some cases charged at groups peacefully protesting and detained them.

In Rawalpindi city, south of Islamabad, clashes were reported and police fired teargas to disperse dozens of PTI supporters.

Several people were detained in Karachi, in the country’s south, when they refused to clear the area, local media reported.