Imran Khan is Prime Minister of Pakistan after 22 years of struggle. He founded Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in 1996. He contested from 11 constituencies and lost deposit in all. The total votes he got in 11 constituencies were not enough to win any one seat. Some commented that Imran Khan considered himself the team when he played cricket and therefore contested from 11 constituencies. This time he contested from five constituencies and won in all of them.
PMN-L, PPP and other parties have accused army of rigging Pakistan election in favour of Imran Khan’s PTI. PTI did not win more than half seats and depends on support of small parties and independents. It seems army wanted PTI wanted to form government but not have enough seats to have majority of its own.
PTI won 116 seats in election for National Assembly. Nine independents joined it. PTI got 28 seats reserved for women and five for Non-Muslims. PTI has 158 seats in National Assembly. It has to vacate six seats; four held by Imran Khan and one each by Sarwar Khan and Major Tahir Sadiq (Retd). PMN-L has got 82 seats. PPP has got 53 seats.
Imran Khan’s swearing-in was supposed to take place on 11 August. It got postponed to 14 August and again to 18 August when Imran Khan took oath. He took oath in Urdu and struggled with words. He got elected as Prime Minister on 17 August. He got 176 votes in National Assembly. His rival Shahbaz Sharif got 96 votes. PPP abstained from voting. Even if PPP had voted for Shahbaz Sharif he would not have won.
Imran Khan had invited Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Navjot Singh Sidhu for his swearing-in. Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev did not attend. Navjot Singh Sidhu attended.
Imran Khan was well-known as cricketer. He led Pakistan to victory in a Test series in India in 1986-87 and World Cup in1992. His popularity as a cricketer did not translate into votes in 1996 and later years. Gradually his vote tally increased. For some time he was in good terms with Pervez Musharraf who was Chief Executive and later President. There was possibility of him become Prime Minister. That did not happen as later Imran Khan turned against Pervez Musharraf.
Imran Khan is against Pakistan being part of America’s War on Terror. He wants Kashmir to be part of Pakistan. He is in favour of Sharia. There is not much hope of Indo-Pakistan relations becoming better with him as PM.
