#maryam nawaz daughter

[mariacallous]

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan—Mohsin Dawar’s campaign for re-election to Pakistan’s parliament was almost cut short before it began in early January when his convoy was ambushed in a village just a few minutes’ drive from his home in Miran Shah in Pakistan’s North Waziristan district, near the lawless borderlands with Afghanistan. As his car came under attack from militants armed with automatic weapons, sniper rifles, and rocket-propelled grenades, he and his team were lured into a compound by residents who promised them safety.

It was a trap. Once the gates closed behind Dawar, the attack intensified. For almost an hour, he said, they were pinned down. Police and Pakistan Army backup finally arrived but not before two of Dawar’s team had been shot and injured. The vehicle took more than 80 bullets, and the windows show just how accurate the attackers’ aim was: Either one of the shots to the windshield or passenger window would have struck and likely killed him if he hadn’t been protected by bulletproof glass.

The Jan. 3 attack on a popular, outspoken, liberal leader in one of the most vulnerable regions of a country fighting a growing insurgency by extremist militants hardly registered in Pakistan, where most believe the military attempted—and failed—to manipulate the Feb. 8 election in an effort to install Nawaz Sharif as prime minister for a fourth time and where media operate under tight government control.

The election wasn’t quite the foregone conclusion that had been expected, with candidates aligned with the jailed cricket star-turned-populist leader Imran Khan winning more votes than each of the major parties—the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party—forcing them into a coalition to get the majority needed to form a government. PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif nominated his brother, Shehbaz Sharif, to become prime minister and his daughter Maryam Nawaz as chief minister of Punjab province, ensuring the dynastic line continues.

Candidates across the country, not only those loyal to Khan, alleged that the results had been rigged against them and in favor of military-backed candidates. Two days after the election, with his seat still undeclared amid growing concerns nationwide about vote rigging, Dawar and about a dozen of his supporters were injured when security forces opened fire on them as they gathered outside the official counting room.

At least three people died of their injuries; What Dawar had believed was an unassailable lead, according to polling by his secular National Democratic Movement party, had disappeared. In the count that was listed as final by Pakistan’s Election Commission, the seat went to Misbah Uddin of the Taliban-aligned Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam-Fazl party. Dawar is still recovering from a serious leg wound.

Dawar’s hometown is, once again, the battleground of what he calls “Project Taliban”—a war against the Pakistani state.

The Taliban’s transnational ambitions are threatening security beyond the borders of Afghanistan, and nowhere is this more evident than in Pakistan’s northwest, where the militant presence has been growing since the terrorist-led group came back to power in August 2021. Attacks on civilians, soldiers, and police have soared. The region bristles with checkpoints and hilltop outposts and is heavily patrolled on the ground and in the air by the Pakistan Army and armed border police. That’s during daylight hours, Dawar told Foreign Policy. Once night falls, it’s a different story.

“The Army checkposts you will only see during the daytime. Before sunset, they go to their barracks, and the people of Waziristan are at the disposal of the militants. Everyone has to secure himself or herself for their own protection,” he said. “It is militarized, and I believe it is a continuation of a proxy war that was started long ago. ‘Project Taliban’ is still continuing.”

The roots of militancy and terrorism in Waziristan go back to colonial times, when the mostly Pashtun people here were characterized as fearless fighters and pressed into service for the British. The stereotype stuck; the region became a center of recruitment and training for young men to fight the Soviets after Moscow’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.

After the United States led an invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks, leaders of the Taliban and al Qaeda moved over the border and for the following 20 years enjoyed the protection of the Pakistani military’s intelligence wing, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

The ISI wanted a tame Taliban-led Afghanistan to thwart the ambitions of archrival India to become the dominant regional power. The Taliban had different ideas. The group’s return to power has inspired affiliated and like-minded groups worldwide, as the extremist regime provides safe haven for dozens of militant groups, according to the U.N. Security Council. They now openly use Afghanistan as a base to train fighters seeking to overthrow governments from China and Tajikistan to Iran and Israel. Among them is Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which, Afrasiab Khattak, a former Pakistani lawmaker and now a political analyst, said, is “just Taliban, there is no difference.”

Earlier this month, the Taliban reiterated the group’s stance on the international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan when the acting foreign minister, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, said the government doesn’t recognize the Durand Line that has delineated the two countries since 1893. The line runs through the tribal regions, dividing ethnic Pashtun and Baloch tribespeople. Recent bilateral tensions have often focused on the border, with tit-for-tat closures impacting cross-border trade.

In comments that Pakistan’s foreign ministry later called “fanciful” and “self-serving”—and which underlined the simmering hostility between Pakistan and the Taliban it helped put in power—Stanikzai said: “We have never recognized Durand and will never recognize it; today half of Afghanistan is separated and is on the other side of the Durand Line. Durand is the line which was drawn by the English on the heart of Afghans.”

The Security Council said in 2022 that the TTP had up to 5,500 fighters in Afghanistan. That number has likely risen, Dawar said, as neither country, mired in economic mismanagement and crisis, can offer its youthful population an alternative livelihood. Victory brought strength, Dawar said, and the Taliban “can attract the youth because money and power is what attracts youth the most.”

The simmering conflict threatens to return Pakistan’s northwest to the wasteland of less than decade ago, when the TTP controlled the region: Dissenters were routinely killed. Terrorists turned the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), now part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after an administrative merger in 2018, into a death zone. Millions of people were displaced as those who could leave fled to peace and safety.

Those who stayed lived in fear and poverty until the Army finally took action in 2016 and ended the TTP’s 10-year reign by simply killing them, often in attacks that also killed civilians, or pushing them over the porous border into Afghanistan, where they joined Taliban forces fighting the U.S.-supported republic until it collapsed in 2021.

The TTP wants an independent state in these border regions. It broke a cease-fire with the government in November 2022 and has demanded that the merger of the FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa be reversed. Attacks on the military and police have escalated alarmingly, presenting what a senior government official, who spoke anonymously, called “not only an existential threat to the state but also to the common man”—a recognition that what Dawar calls “Project Taliban” not only threatens to engulf the northwest but, if not contained, poses a potential threat to a fragile and barely stable state.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar disagreed, telling reporters before the Feb. 8 vote that the military had the upper hand in the region, by virtue of numbers alone. “I don’t see that they pose an existential threat to the state of Pakistan,” he said, while nevertheless conceding it was a “big challenge” that could take years to dislodge.

He could be right. After the failure of peace talks, ironically brokered by the Taliban’s acting interior minister, U.N.-listed terrorist Sirajuddin Haqqani, Pakistan stepped up pressure on the TTP. Asfandyar Mir, an expert on South Asian political and security issues, said this appeared to have made a “marginal” difference.

“For instance, we haven’t seen a complex or suicide bombing attack by the TTP or one of its fronts for a couple of months now,” he said. “In that sense, it appears the Taliban is sensitive to pressure,” though “smaller-scale attacks and the erosion of Pakistani state authority in parts of the northwest continue.” Things could change, he said, once a new government is installed and, perhaps, brings some stability to the political landscape.

For the people of Waziristan, struggling to survive unemployment, a lack of development, and government neglect of basic services such as roads, electricity, clean water, and education—coupled with a downturn in vital cross-border trade with Afghanistan—priorities have again switched to peace. “The local people have learned through their own bitter experience of devastating war” what a Taliban resurgence means, said Khattak, the political analyst. The security establishment is playing a dangerous game, indulging the TTP so that “local people become so desperate they want the military to come in and help them,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands of people have marched through the streets and bazaars of North and South Waziristan over the past year, demanding action against terrorism and an end to state violence. Yet it continues. “No one is safe. Everyone is a target,” said a man in his 30s as he rolled off a list of potential victims: politicians, business people, teachers, doctors, journalists, civic activists, women’s rights advocates, anyone deemed “un-Islamic.” Even barbers are not immune from extremists who ban men from shaving: The day before the Jan. 3 attack on Dawar’s convoy, the bodies of six young hairdressers were found in the nearby town of Mir Ali.

Another local resident pointed to a “Taliban checkpoint” on the road between Miran Shah and the bustling town of Bannu. The long-haired, kohl-eyed, gun-toting youths in sequined caps stand outside their roadside hut in the shadow of an Army post on the hill above. Around the clock, the resident said, they randomly stop vehicles to shake down the drivers. “It’s just for money,” he said. “Money and power.”

But it’s killing, too, “on a daily basis,” said a government worker who left Miran Shah with his family at the height of the TTP terror and visited in early February from Peshawar so he and his wife could vote for Dawar. The aim, he said, is “to create an atmosphere of fear so that people leave and what is here is theirs.”

Dawar said the turning of the Taliban tables on Pakistan “was predictable.” The Taliban “are now a threat to Central Asia. They are now a threat to Iran, to Pakistan, and to even China. All of them thought we will control the Taliban after the takeover. The problem is it didn’t happen,” he said.

In 2011, then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Pakistan’s leaders that they couldn’t keep “snakes,” as she called the Taliban, in their own backyard and “expect them only to bite your neighbors.”

“There used to be a time when people were sent from here to Afghanistan. Now they are coming around, they are biting,” Dawar said.

[dpr-lahore-division]

With compliments from, The Directorate General Public Relations,

Government of the Punjab, Lahore Ph. 99201390.

No.1087/Zafar/Mujahid

HANDOUT (A)

Never Believe in Ill-Founded Propaganda, We Are Committed to Your Security: CM Maryam Nawaz Sharif Clears Mist on Fake Student Rape Allegations

Lahore, 16 October 2024: Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif while addressing the press conference said, “The girl's mother made this request to me, so today you are seeing me on the media. The girl, who was made a rape victim, has been admitted to the hospital since October 2 due to sustaining injuries at home. The under treatment daughter at ICU was being presented as a rape victim. The girl's mother requested on the phone that it is your responsibility to take care of the honour of my girls. Such news were spread on the social media, accusations were made and stories were fabricated which did not even exist. The said girl has been undergoing treatment at the hospital due to a spinal injury since October 2. The guard who was accused in the incident was on leave and he was arrested from Sargodha for investigation. The incident did not happen and there was no eye witness as well. Students are requested to have faith in their government as your safety is my responsibility”. CM Maryam Nawaz Sharif said, “The police responded as soon as the report of the alleged rape was received, and the search for the victim girl is ongoing. The so-called campaign was launched to mislead the students. After the failed call of protest and chaos, such a lousy plan was launched. A lousy plan was made to save the sinking, dying politics. Daughters, sisters and mothers are equally respectable, the girl was accused of being a rape victim, dishonoured and lied to. The police wanted to make the father of the girl a plaintiff to the incident but it is a matter of education of thousands of our daughters.”

She added, “The Punjab government will become plaintiff in this incident. I have probed all the medical records and available evidence in every way and will go to the end and will not spare the people involved in it. A storm was raised on the social media over a false incident as a spark ignites a fire on the social media. A story of lies was concocted which did not exist. Even the minor details have been examined down to the bottom of the incident.”

The Chief Minister said, “All such people who were facing allegations have been investigated and I personally attended the meeting of the investigation committee.  As a mother, the incident of the college is very important I am the Chief Executive of the province and it is my responsibility to protect the honour, life and property of 15 crore people. It is our collective responsibility to expose the characters of this conspiracy and bring them to justice. False stories were fabricated to incite the students and a false campaign was launched. When the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting was being held in Pakistan years later, after the failure of the siege, a ghastly plan was made. When the country's economy improved, inflation decreased, stock exchange improved, protests and arson started. It is my responsibility to protect the honor and reputation of 15 crore people having various ideologies. A child injured in a traffic accident in Gujrat was made a victim of police violence. Child injured due to collision with police van, driver and accomplice were arrested immediately. I have taken update of all the situation till the completion of child’s surgery. People posing as students have been brought to spread chaos in Gujrat. In Gujrat, children were suddenly lured to the streets. Indiscriminate action will be taken against all who are involved in spreading falsehood be it PML-Q supporters or others. When it comes to politics, animalism and satanism, should be discouraged.”

She said, “ On May 9, they sat quietly with their children. Those who are involved in this heinous act will not go scot-free, and the records of all the accounts involved in the incident have been unearthed. The accuser V Loger, has changed his stance and those who were supposed to be arrested have fled, leaving their father in distress and difficulties. Once again children were lured into spreading chaos and anarchy. KPK Chief Minister used public resources to invade Punjab.” The CM said, “I have never witnessed before that one province is attacking another province. I expressed my gratitude to the people of Punjab for rejecting the call of anarchy party. Creating such a situation on the eve of Shanghai Cooperation Organization amounts to unpatriotic attitude. No patriotic Pakistani can indulge into such mischievous activities after seeing the prospects of improvement in the economic conditions of the country. Those who prevent the development of the country are enemies of the country, that is why it is called a terrorist party. Pakistan carries a decent face and will remain so, it is our duty to show a noble face of Pakistan. After the 2018 election, the situation went from bad to worse, and with the efforts of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, the situation improved. I am the Chief Minister of everyone of which party they belong to. The owner of Punjab College Mian Amir Mahmood is a respectable man and I will not allow injustice being done to anyone in my government. You know we nabbed the accused in the rape case even in two hours and women and children are my red line, law & order is my foremost priority.”

The CM added,  “The Defamation law is being opposed so that they can freely tell lies and no one can apprehend them. The Defamation law has been passed and will be implemented soon. Accounts in digital terrorism are being operated by sitting abroad. Such people cannot do constructive politics, they play havoc in everything after coming to power. They do not know how to work and are not even taught. These people are self-sufficient doing vandalism and riots. The people of KPK have been deprived of development and due rights. Politics  disregard doing riots, and siege but is the name of launching projects like air ambulance, heart surgery and roads. Politics is the name of undertaking development projects and doing public service. I ask the people of KPK to open their eyes and recognize their rights. The right to freedom of speech is for truth and not for lies.’’  

The Chief Minister said, “Education Minister himself went to the children and listened to their grievances. The social media accounts linked to PTI started spreading chaos and unrest. The cases framed against founder PTI are true, that's why there is a lot of anarchy and unrest is being spread. The facility being provided to the PTI founder should also be provided to the rest of the prisoners. It is our collective responsibility to expose the conspiratorial characters who make up the fabricated story. The children were misled, they did not know the  real issue.  Agitation party is a real problem, social media is not the problem. The false news of the alleged rape victim's death was being spread. An application has been lodged to the FIA to take action against those involved in the incident. PTI leader Zartaj Gul's sister was also given a chance to explain as she does not want to do injustice to anyone. The children were unaware of the issue and were demanding justice. 1122 ambulances with full equipment came from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to invade Punjab. Nawaz Sharif and Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif are trying to improve the situation. Irrespective of political differences, I will speak out wherver injustice is being done.”

The Chief Minister said, “Sometimes they do politics on dead bodies, sometimes they do false politics on children. Those who indulge into such abominable traditions will not be spared. I request the Judiciary that it is a matter to protect honour and all those responsible should not be spared. Misleading mindset is put into practice to influence the young generation. Networks spreading lies have been identified, some networks are operating from outside the country and some are operating from Peshawar. It is not possible to slander someone and get away quietly.”

Senior Provincial Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, Provincial Minister for Information & Culture Azma Zahid Bokhari, Provincial Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat, Chief Secretary, Advocate General, Provincial Secretaries and other relevant officials were also present on the occasion.

**  **

[sohailjawaid]

Maryam Nawaz Deleted A Picture

Maryam Nawaz, a prominent Pakistani politician and daughter of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, recently sparked controversy when she deleted a picture from her social media. The image, originally posted on her account, had drawn attention for undisclosed reasons, prompting speculation and debate among her followers and the public. Her decision to remove the picture has fueled curiosity and raised questions about the context and implications behind its deletion.

Read More

[jobaaj]

Remember the 5 Chinese killed in Pakistan? Pakistan is blaming them for being careless!! Last week in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, a tragic incident occurred where 5 Chinese nationals lost their lives alongside one Pakistani citizen. This was a result of a terrorist suicide bomber attacking their convoy.

China has suspended the Tarbela 5th expansion project, urging an investigation into the recent attack and seeking solutions to the increasing terrorist threats against Chinese-funded infrastructure projects in the country.

Yesterday, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the daughter of ex-PM Nawaz Sharif and niece of current PM Shehbaz Sharif, claimed that the Chinese do not want to follow security protocol! At her inaugural Apex Committee meeting yesterday, Maryam Nawaz, who is also the CM of Pakistan’s Punjab, announced that Chinese citizens act ‘resentful’ when asked to follow security protocols and are uncomfortable with the idea of being subject to discipline!! However, she stated that despite the challenge, her government was committed to ensuring the safety of the Chinese citizens working on projects in Pakistan. What do you think? Are the Chinese simply reckless? Or is Pakistan trying to shift the blame?? Follow Jobaaj Stories (the media arm of Jobaaj.com Group) for more.

[xtruss]

Pakistan’s Corrupt To Their Cores Army Generals Look Increasingly Desperate! A Heavily Fraudulent Election May Not Keep Imran Khan’s Fans At Bay

— March 14th 2024 | The Economist

Illustration of a Ballot Being Shredded. Image Credit: lan Truong

Thief, Looter, Traitor, International Money Launderer Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League Party (PML-N) is Back in Power with the Help of Heavily Rigged Elections by the Pakistan’s Corrupt To Their Cores Army Generals, ISI, Politicians and Judges. Following elections last month, the thrice former prime minister’s younger brother, Shehbaz, has been installed in the ruling post. His Daughter, Lowlife, Looter, Thief, Corrupt and Stupid to her Core Maryam Safdar, is the New Chief Minister of Populous Punjab in result of Stolen Mandate of Imran Khan’s Party PTI. So why is Mr Sharif so glum? The 74-year-old “Lion of Punjab 😂😂😂” has said little publicly since the vote. Bunkered down in his mansion outside Lahore, he is said to be depressed.

He has reason to be. The PML-N’s success is much less than Mr Sharif was promised when he returned home last year. He had spent four years in exile in London because Pakistan’s Generals—Stage Managers of its Democracy—were against him. They rigged an election in 2018 in favour of his main rival, Imran Khan. But then they fell out with Mr Khan and reverted to the lion. A former cricketing god, Mr Khan is Now in Jail on Graft Charges. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has been dismantled. PML-N was therefore expected to sweep the election and Mr Sharif to become prime minister for a fourth time. Instead, something unprecedented happened.

Despite the Army’s Myriad Ploys to prevent Pakistanis voting for Mr Khan, it seems most did so. Standing as independents, candidates linked to his party swept the country. Early counting put them on track for Two-Thirds of Punjab’s seats and an overall majority. At which point the Army Intervened to a degree that might make a Tin-Pot Tyrant Blush.

Army agents were allegedly sent into counting stations with alternative tallies. Salman Akram Raja, a Supreme Court Lawyer running as a De Facto PTI Candidate in Lahore, had been informed that he had won by 95,000 votes. And then—whoops—that he had lost to the PML-N Candidate by 13,500. Mr Sharif’s Party would otherwise have faced oblivion. As it is, it won only 75 of 264 seats. It cobbled together a majority by striking a deal with the Pakistan Peoples Party, which is run by another Fading Dynasty, the Bhuttos.

This might seem like Pakistani business as usual. The country has been ruled by the army, directly or at varying degrees of remove, throughout its history. In a cycle that Mr Sharif has been through several times, the Corrupt Generals put a Biddable Civilian in Power then, after he or she dares to act independently, switch to a different proxy or Army Rule. Thereby Pakistan has had Four Army Dictators and None of its 20 Civilian Prime Ministers has completed a Five-Year term. This helps explain why it is so badly governed. Having little prospect of a full term, Pakistan’s civilian regimes abjure long-term decision-making in favour of populist giveaways and graft. As recently as 2006, Pakistanis were better-off than Indians; now the average income in India is 60% higher than that in Pakistan.

A big question arising from this latest turn of the wheel is whether the army can maintain control. There are two reasons to think it could struggle. The first is Mr Khan. Perhaps unwittingly, given his erstwhile compliance with the army, he has channelled Pakistanis’ long-standing despond into anger at the military establishment. This has put Pakistani Politics on New Terrain. Had the Boak Bollocks Corrupt Army Chief, General Asim Munir, responded to the vote count by calling a state of emergency, as his predecessors might have, he would have risked an uprising. “There is This Sense That the Gravy Train Needs to Stop,” says Mr Raja, an Old Acquaintance of Banyan. “We Can’t Be Forever Governed by Two Families in Cahoots with the Powers That Be.”

The second factor endangering the status quo is a protracted economic crisis. The inflationary shocks experienced in many countries have in Pakistan combined with the effects of long-standing malgovernance to deliver chronic inflation, joblessness and balance-of-payment problems. Mr Khan’s ousting in 2022 now appears well timed for him. Mr Sharif’s decision to let Shehbaz (Both Brothers Certified Corrupt to Their Cores) lead an 16-month-long replacement government instead of calling early elections looks like a major blunder. It has hung the crisis around his party’s neck. With Pakistan’s 24th IMF Bail-Out set to expire this month, and a bigger loan urgently required, the new government will need to take measures that will make it even more unpopular than it is. Its prospects—and Mr Sharif’s hopes of rebuilding his party—appear dire.

The same could be true for the army-run establishment that Mr Sharif has unhappily rejoined. It may have got away with its latest election heist. But in the process Mr Khan’s supporters have made the Corrupt Army, ISI, Politicians and Judges Look Desperate and Vulnerable. ■

[speedyposts]

Pakistan elections 2024: Which are the major political parties?

On Thursday, Pakistan, a nation of nearly 250 million people, will vote to elect a national government and members of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.

The vote comes amid a crackdown on former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and a fluid political climate.

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Like most major democracies, Pakistan’s political parties span a spectrum of ideologies.

Here are the country’s major parties — including those that have been in power nationally, others that have significant regional or local influence and still others that are smaller yet reflect the diverse issues and challenges that Pakistan confronts.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, a centrist party led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, came to power for the third time in 2013 with a clear majority.

But Sharif, 74, was removed from office in 2017, unable to complete his term in office due to an array of corruption charges against him. Along with his daughter, Maryam, he was sentenced to jail for 10 years in 2018, days before the last national election.

Shehbaz Sharif, 72, Nawaz’s younger brother and former chief minister of the party’s political stronghold, Punjab, took office as prime minister in 2022. That was after the PMLN, as part of an alliance known as the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), toppled Khan and his government in a vote of no-confidence. Khan had come to power in 2018.

Shehbaz’s supporters often call him “Shehbaz speed” for his energy and fast delivery style on infrastructure projects, such as Lahore’s Metro Bus project.

However, his 16 months as prime minister saw hyperinflation and protests led by Khan’s PTI.

Meanwhile, Nawaz returned to Pakistan in October from four years of self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom. Within weeks, corruption charges against him were overruled in the courts, leading to suggestions from analysts that he had been handpicked by the powerful military as the nation’s next prime minister.

The biggest challenge before the Sharifs will be to wrestle back their support base from Khan, who despite being in jail under multiple sentences, remains a popular force, especially among urban youth with a strong digital presence.

The PMLN is still the clear frontrunner heading into the elections. While the elder Sharif is the party’s supremo, it’s unclear which of the brothers may lead the National Assembly if the PMLN secures enough seats.

Seats won in 2018: 64

Seats won in 2013: 126

The PTI, founded by cricketer-turned-politician Khan and currently led by Gohar Ali Khan, leans more to the centre right.

Khan came to power with a victory in the 2018 elections. But within years, the military establishment, which appeared to have backed him in that vote, turned against him as Khan was deposed from office by a no-confidence vote in parliament, the first in Pakistan’s history.

Khan accuses the United States of conspiring with Pakistan’s military and his political rivals to throw him out, a charge they all deny. After his dismissal, Khan’s party led demonstrations across the country, demanding early elections.

However, the protests took an ugly turn when Khan was arrested in May on charges of corruption. His supporters went on a rampage, targeting civilian and military installations.

The unrest resulted in a brutal retaliation from the state. Hundreds of party leaders were forced to quit the PTI, thousands of its workers were arrested, and the party faced suppression.

Khan, who has more than 150 cases filed against him, has now been convicted of corruption as well as disclosing state secrets and faces 14 years in jail.

His party was stripped of its electoral symbol, the cricket bat, and its candidates are now forced to run as independents.

Despite the obvious hurdles in its way, the PTI enjoys vast popular support across the country, which could work to its advantage.

Seats won in 2018: 116 

Seats won in 2013: 28

The centre-left Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his father, Asif Ali Zardari, is striving to return to power for the first time since 2008.

The party was founded by his maternal grandfather and former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, then led by his mother, two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The 35-year-old Bhutto Zardari has big boots to fill.

The scion of the Bhutto dynasty will be competing in his second election. He was foreign minister under PDM rule after Khan’s ouster in 2022.

Bhutto Zardari stands out as a young leader in an even younger nation — the median age is 20 in a country otherwise dominated by men in their 70s.

But he faces challenges, including criticism of his party’s governance of Sindh for the past four terms, especially after cataclysmic 2022 flooding, which destroyed much of the province.

His manifesto and campaign are focused on connecting with the youth of the country, and he has ambitious plans to combat climate change.

If he does become prime minister in a significant upset, he would be following in the footsteps of his mother, who first took the country’s top executive office in 1988 at the same age.

Seats won in 2018: 43 

Seats won in 2013: 34

The Awami National Party, an ethnic Pashtun nationalist party based mainly in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, seeks to replace the PTI in the provincial government there.

The centre-left party, led by Asfandyar Wali Khan, takes progressive, secular positions on policy but has been dogged by corruption allegations and has been out of power for nearly two decades.

The ANP was part of the 11-party PDM alliance.

Seats won in 2018: 1 

Seats won in 2013: 2

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement was the most powerful political force in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and economic backbone, for nearly three decades.

In the past, the MQM-P has always formed alliances with the parties leading the country nationally. It was in coalition with the PTI after the 2018 elections but switched loyalties over to the PDM after April 2022.

The MQM-P split in August 2016 into a London faction and a Pakistan faction after an incendiary speech by its exiled leader Altaf Hussain.

Yet when the chance to join the PDM alliance arose, the split factions and offshoots of the MQM-P reunited.

Past paramilitary operations targeting the party and its alleged connections to criminal enterprises in Karachi have broken its popularity Sindh province.

Most of its support is in Karachi and neighbouring cities, which have large pockets of people who fled there after the subcontinent’s partition in 1947.

The MQM-P will battle PTI-affiliated independents, Jamaat-e-Islami, the PPP and young independent candidates to try and regain their base.

Seats won in 2018: 6 

Seats won in 2013: 18

Led by Siraj ul Haq, Jamaat-e-Islami is a right-wing party with its manifesto centred around religion.

One of Pakistan’s oldest political parties is well known for its strong party organisation, but it has failed to do well at the ballot box.

It has been out of power for decades, and its last success of any note was in the 2002 elections under the rule of President Pervez Musharraf, a general who took power in a coup.

The JI is targeting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and heavily focusing on Karachi with its relatively young leader, Hafiz Naeem.

Having done well in recent local elections in Karachi, the religious party is trying to promote a more moderate, development-centric agenda that it hopes will attract voters.

Seats won in 2018: 12 (in an alliance of religious parties)

Seats won in 2013: 2

The right-wing Jumiat-e-Ulema Islam, led by Fazal-ur-Rehman, is also aiming to regain lost ground, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which it lost to the PTI.

The Muslim leader was head of the PDM alliance and is looking to use his vast network of religious seminaries to help him win votes.

With a wealth of political experience in Pakistan, Rehman is an astute political operator who could also forge alliances when the new government is being formed.

Seats won in 2018: 12 (in an alliance of religious parties)

Seats won in 2013: 11

The Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party is a Pashtun nationalist group, mainly active in Balochistan province, where it was part of the ruling alliance in the last provincial government.

Led by Mahmood Khan Achakzai, PkMap is considered a progressive centre-left party in Pakistan’s most impoverished province, which also has the least number of national assembly seats (16).

The party seeks greater provincial autonomy and enhanced powers for the Senate, where all the provinces have equal representation.

Seats won in 2018: 0

Seats won in 2013: 3

The Balochistan Awami Party was formed in 2018 with current interim Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq one of its founders.

The party, since its inception, was seen as a group of disparate politicians belonging to various tribes of Balochistan, towing the line of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment. In the 2018 elections, the BAP formed an alliance with the PTI.

The party will contest at least 10 National Assembly seats, all from Balochistan, and is expected to be a powerbroker if major parties need partners to form a coalition government.

Seats won in 2018: 4

Seats won in 2013: n/a

The left-wing Awami Workers Party is a relatively newer and smaller movement in comparison to the other mainstream groups. It is campaigning on an anti-austerity plank.

While it provides an option to voters disillusioned with the existing political system in the country, it has just three candidates contesting National Assembly seats across the country, which limits its impact.

Seats won in 2018: 0 

Seats won in 2013: 0

A new entrant in the 2024 polls, the socialist Haqooq-e-Khalq Party is fielding young candidates in PMLN strongholds in Lahore.

Similar to the AWP, the HKP struggles with financial resources to put up candidates in more constituencies and will be contesting from one city only with two National Assembly candidates and one provincial candidate.

Seats won in 2018: n/a

Seats won in 2013: n/a

Formed in June, the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party was founded by Jehangir Tareen, one of the richest businessmen in Pakistan and a close confidante and financier of Khan in the past.

The centrist party came into being just a month after Khan’s PTI faced a state crackdown in the aftermath of the May 9 unrest.

A large number of PTI leaders, who announced their resignations from the party, soon emerged from the shadows and announced they were joining the IPP.

The party is seen as being made up of a large number of electable candidates with strong personal influence in their native areas. It hopes to win enough seats in the elections to play a part in the formation of the next government.

Seats won in 2018: n/a

Seats won in 2013: n/a

While the candidates remaining in the PTI have to run as independents due to legal woes afflicting the party, these polls will also see a large number of independents who are not linked to any party.

Some of those contestants have been part of the PTI in the past, but this time are choosing to participate on their own. Others are young independent candidates without mainstream political affiliations.

Historically, independent candidates have almost always ended up joining the party with the largest number of seats in the National Assembly.

Seats won in 2018: 13

Seats won in 2013: 27

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[blogynews]

"Secrets Uncovered: Nawaz Sharif Drops Clues on His Political Heir!"

Lahore, Pakistan: Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, indirectly indicated his daughter Maryam as his political successor during a massive rally held at Minar-e-Pakistan on Saturday. Sharif, who recently returned to Pakistan after spending four years in self-imposed exile in the UK, addressed the cheering crowds and stated, “I am the son of the soil, Maryam is the daughter of the…

[blogynewz]

"Secrets Uncovered: Nawaz Sharif Drops Clues on His Political Heir!"

Lahore, Pakistan: Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, indirectly indicated his daughter Maryam as his political successor during a massive rally held at Minar-e-Pakistan on Saturday. Sharif, who recently returned to Pakistan after spending four years in self-imposed exile in the UK, addressed the cheering crowds and stated, “I am the son of the soil, Maryam is the daughter of the…

[blogynewsz]

"Secrets Uncovered: Nawaz Sharif Drops Clues on His Political Heir!"

Lahore, Pakistan: Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, indirectly indicated his daughter Maryam as his political successor during a massive rally held at Minar-e-Pakistan on Saturday. Sharif, who recently returned to Pakistan after spending four years in self-imposed exile in the UK, addressed the cheering crowds and stated, “I am the son of the soil, Maryam is the daughter of the…

[bollytollykolly]

"Game Over": Nawaz Sharif's Daughter Maryam Nawaz Mocks Imran Khan - NDTV

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[dpr-lahore-division]

**Press Release**

October 14

*"In private college incident no girl has reported to the police yet: Azma Bokhari"*

*"CM Punjab is receiving updates on the incident continuously: Azma Bokhari"**

*"If anyone has verified information, please share it with the government: Azma Bokhari"*

Lahore: Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari has said that In a private college incident, no girl has reported to the Punjab police so far. Today, a name was highlighted, and inquiries were made at the homes of all girls with that name, but no affected girl was found; all denied it. Chief Minister of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz, is receiving updates on this matter continuously. Instead of politicizing the plight of innocent girls, if anyone has verified information or knows a victim, please share it with the Punjab government. The guard accused in the private college incident has been in police custody since yesterday. Azma expressed sorrow over the sensationalism surrounding the suffering of these innocent girls. While talking about the Punjab University incident, the Information Minister emphasized that we should care for the old father , no one should be allowed to politicize this incident. She urged people to consider others’ daughters as their own and refrain from putting up posters of their families.

[famousever]

Maryam Nawaz Sharif

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[filmishine]

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[theechudar]

'Why did he open doors for terrorists': Maryam Nawaz blames ex-ISI chief for Peshawar blast

PTI chairman Imran Khan’s facilitator – Gen Faiz Hamid – who was posted in Peshawar (as Corps commander) was responsible for the Peshawar attack, Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz said. Lahore,UPDATED: Feb 2, 2023 03:00 IST Pakistan’s deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz (Photo: Reuters) By Press Trust of India: Pakistan’s deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s…