In Photos: Amid Mobile Service Suspension, Pakistan Votes to Elect Next PM
While unofficial results may begin to flow in on Thursday night, the ECP is likely to announce results on Friday.
The Pakistan general elections are a tri-contest between Nawaz Sharif's the Pakistan Muslims League-Nawaz (PML-N), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and imprisoned Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
(Photo: PTI)
The Pakistan general elections are a tri-contest between Nawaz Sharif's the Pakistan Muslims League-Nawaz (PML-N), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and imprisoned Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
According to Al Jazeera, interior ministry authorities in Pakistan suspended mobile phone services across the nation to “maintain law and order”.
While unofficial results may begin to flow in on Thursday night itself, the ECP is likely to announce results on Friday, 9 February, according to a report by Reuters.
The PTI and its leader, former PM Imran Khan, have faced months of a nationwide crackdown, with party leaders being arrested, PTI candidates being declared as independents, and nomination papers being rejected.
Khan, who was sentenced to a cumulative 31 years of jail in three different cases, is the country’s most popular political leader in recent times. His adventures and run-ins with Pakistan’s powerful army establishment, however, have rendered him absent from the political arena.
Lawyer and executive at not-for-profit Digital Rights Foundation Nighat Dad told news agency AFP that the suspension of mobile services “is an attack on the democratic rights of Pakistanis”.
In a statement, Pakistan’s Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja said that the move to allow or block internet services was beyond the agency's mandate.
Long queues of voters are still present across many of the polling centres in Lahore and Karachi even after the scheduled close of polls.
Aseefa Bhutto, sister of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari casts her vote.
The PTI has called on people to remove passwords from their personal WiFi accounts amid the ongoing suspension of mobile networks.
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