For the third time in its political history, Pakistan finds itself stuck in a dead end after a general election. The first time the country came to this pass was after the December 1970 general election. The outcome of the vote triggered a critical crisis as the stakeholders reached a dead end, ultimately resulting in the country breaking up into two. Then again, the results from the March 1977 general election triggered a large-scale agitation against alleged rigging in the polling, leading to the imposition of what turned out to be the country’s longest martial law.

And now the outcome of the February 2024 general election has resulted in a critical impasse. PTI and several other political parties are alleging large-scale rigging and fraud in the compilation of results through what they call doctored forms 45. No single party got a simple majority in the election and the country seems to have hit a dead end despite the PPP’s announcement on February 13 that it will support the PML-N candidate for Prime Minister but will not be a part of the federal cabinet.

A majority of the people voted against the status quo, but the results were manipulated to turn the victory of the PTI-backed independent candidates into a defeat. The protesting candidates and their supporters, particularly in Punjab and Karachi, are now moving the Election Commission and higher courts against alleged rigging. But, one wonders how the PTI candidates will get relief from the same authority, the Election Commission, which they allege are........

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