The US state Department's top official for South and Central Asia urged Pakistan to probe reported irregularities in last month's election in the country. Donald L stated that Pakistan should rerun the vote in affected constituencies if it found credible evidence of interference. Watch to know more details!

US Diplomat Donald Lu urges Pakistan to probe polls

Pakistan's elections will go ahead as planned, the interior minister said Thursday, after the country's vote body held a meeting with government and intelligence officials to discuss a spike in violence.

Polls in the South Asian nation are often marred by violence, with candidates and rallies targeted by militant groups as well as over personal vendettas.

"Elections will take place on the 8th of February," Gohar Ijaz, the caretaker interior minister, said.&nbsp;

He added that a spate of attacks in the southwestern Balochistan province, where Islamabad has fought a decades-long insurgency, posed "no security threat".&nbsp;

"We will provide proper security for the elections," Ijaz said. &nbsp;

In the past few days, a dozen separate attacks have been reported across Balochistan, at least five of which targeted candidates from different political parties.&nbsp;

On Tuesday, at least four people were killed by a bomb blast near a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rally in the provincial capital Quetta.

"Security is currently on high alert, all our teams are carrying out extra patrols, snap-checks are also being done, everyone knows that there is a threat in the entire province," said Tariq Jawad, a police official in Quetta, on Thursday. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;

Rich mineral deposits in Pakistan's largest but poorest province have been at the centre of Islamabad's battle with ethnic Baloch separatist factions there.&nbsp;

Locals say they do not get their fair share of wealth from the oil and gas reserves, with the region consistently ranking at the bottom of Pakistan's human development indicators.

In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, at least two candidates have been shot dead since the start of January, including Rehan Zeb Khan, a PTI-backed independent who was shot dead on Wednesday after leaving a stump gathering in the former tribal district of Bajaur.

"The killing of Rehan Zeb is a targeted killing aimed at creating chaos during the elections," district police officer Kashif Zulfiqar told AFP.&nbsp;

Fifteen political figures in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have faced death threats from militants over the past two months, a senior officer from the Counter Terrorism&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

Pakistan's elections will go ahead as planned, the interior minister said Thursday, after the country's vote body held a meeting with government and intelligence officials to discuss a spike in violence.

Pakistan's elections will go ahead as planned, the interior minister said Thursday, after the country's vote body held a meeting with government and intelligence officials to discuss a spike in violence. Polls in the South Asian nation are often marred by violence, with candidates and rallies targeted by militant groups as well as over personal vendettas. "Elections will take place on the 8th of February," Gohar Ijaz, the caretaker interior minister, said. He added that a spate of attacks in the southwestern Balochistan province, where Islamabad has fought a decades-long insurgency, posed "no security threat". "We will provide proper security for the elections," Ijaz said. In the past few days, a dozen separate attacks have been reported across Balochistan, at least five of which targeted candidates from different political parties. On Tuesday, at least four people were killed by a bomb blast near a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rally in the provincial capital Quetta. "Security is currently on high alert, all our teams are carrying out extra patrols, snap-checks are also being done, everyone knows that there is a threat in the entire province," said Tariq Jawad, a police official in Quetta, on Thursday. Rich mineral deposits in Pakistan's largest but poorest province have been at the centre of Islamabad's battle with ethnic Baloch separatist factions there. Locals say they do not get their fair share of wealth from the oil and gas reserves, with the region consistently ranking at the bottom of Pakistan's human development indicators. In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, at least two candidates have been shot dead since the start of January, including Rehan Zeb Khan, a PTI-backed independent who was shot dead on Wednesday after leaving a stump gathering in the former tribal district of Bajaur. "The killing of Rehan Zeb is a targeted killing aimed at creating chaos during the elections," district police officer Kashif Zulfiqar told AFP. Fifteen political figures in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have faced death threats from militants over the past two months, a senior officer from the Counter Terrorism

No delay in Pakistan polls after security meeting

Intensifying allegations of military interference threaten to cast a shadow over Pakistan's general election on July 25, a historic event that will mark only the country's second-ever democratic transition of power.

On Friday the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party handed over to a technocratic caretaker administration after completing a full five-year term, another democratic milestone.

But as campaigning begins, tensions between the civilian politicians and the powerful military, which has ruled for about half of Pakistan's history since independence in 1947, are running high.

Four PML-N lawmakers told Reuters they had received threats and pressure to switch allegiance to rival parties, while newspapers are awash with accusations of military "engineering" and journalists and media houses complaint of growing censorship.

"It is a chipping away. It`s behind the scenes, under the covers, below the radar," PML-N's outgoing Privatisation Minister Daniyal Aziz told Reuters, using typically coded language to hint at meddling by the generals without naming them.

The military, which strongly denies interfering in politics, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The political tensions come at a time of growing economic instability in the nuclear-armed nation of 208 million people. Islamabad`s rapidly depleting currency reserves and a widening current account deficit have prompted many analysts to predict the next government will need to seek the country`s second International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout since 2013.

PML-N founder Nawaz Sharif was ousted by the Supreme Court as prime minister in July and now faces corruption charges, events he has described as "pre-poll rigging" aimed at denying his party another term. He has cast the campaign as a battle to protect the "sanctity of the vote".&nbsp

Anti-corruption platform

PML-N's main challenge is expected to come from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who is betting his anti-corruption message will propel him to power.

Khan has denied the generals have thrown their weight behind PTI, and accuses Sharif of hiding behind such allegations to avoid accountability.

In a statement, the PTI this week said: "Any deliberate or unconscious effort to compromise the sanctity of ballot could cause irreparable damage to national interests".

But analysts and Western diplomats who spoke to Reuters said the military was squeezing PML-N ahead of polls.

"This kind of interference has always been there, but this time it is so naked that everyone is seeing it and everyone is talking about it," said Ijaz Khan, a retired international relations professor at Peshawar University.&nbsp

A "Pre-Election Assessment Report" published this week by an independent think-tank, Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT), deemed the pre-poll process to have been "unfair overall" in the 12 months before the election was called last week.

PILDAT said "surreptitious muzzling" of the media, a rise in bias from the military establishment and a "perceived partisanship in judicial and political accountability have nearly eroded the prospects of a free and fair election in 2018".

Pakistan's biggest TV channel, Geo, went off air for several weeks in April and only returned after its executives struck a deal with the military over their coverage of Sharif, two executives told Reuters.

Distribution of Dawn, the biggest English-language newspaper in the country, has been suspended from some military cantonment areas in several cities, a senior Dawn executive told Reuters. Many prominent columnists have put out statements about their work being censored, often by their own editors.

Menacing phone calls

A frequent complaint by Sharif, whose second term as prime minister was ended by a bloodless army coup in 1999, is that PML-N lawmakers are being intimidated.&nbsp

Four PML-N lawmakers from the Punjab province described to Reuters a similar pattern of strange calls and visits from unknown men who would pretend to be well-wishers, but then make clear to them it would be in their interest to ditch Sharif.

None of the lawmakers wished to be identified. One recounted a recent, seemingly random, encounter with a man claiming to be a supporter that ended with the well-wisher telling him: "Your boss is a traitor. Traitors have no future in this country".

Three of the lawmakers are sticking with PML-N but one has defected to PTI. All four said they believed the calls were from intelligence agents, though they did not have any proof. Reuters could not independently corroborate the events they described.

In the last few months at least 15 National Assembly PML-N lawmakers have left the party, mostly to join PTI. PML-N officials say most were politicians who won their seats as independents in 2013 and joined PML-N afterwards.

Khan has dismissed PML-N accusations the lawmakers were pressured into switching sides, but predicted in a recent meeting with foreign media that many more would follow. He believes such defections will be vital to gaining a foothold in Punjab, long a PML-N stronghold that returns 141 of the 272 directly contested seats in the National Assembly.

In the dock

Several senior PML-N figures are currently facing court cases after a flurry of charges against them.6

Among them, Sharif could be jailed for 14 years before the polls in a corruption trial he calls a "witch hunt", while Aziz, the former privatisation minister, is facing contempt of court charges that could bar him from standing in the election.&nbsp

The judiciary has denied targeting, or favouring, any political party, and rejects allegations from PML-N of collusion with the military to weaken the party.

The Election Commision of Pakistan`s code of conduct for the pre-poll campaign period is shaping up to be the next battleground.

Proposed new rules would prohibit anyone from criticising the military and the judiciary, while also banning politicians from talking about what they have achieved in government.

With PML-N's electoral campaign built around touting mega infrastructure projects and defending civilian rule, the party is no doubt who this would hurt the most.&nbsp

Intensifying allegations of military interference threaten to cast a shadow over Pakistan's general election on July 25, a historic event that will mark only the country's second-ever democratic transition of power

Intensifying allegations of military interference threaten to cast a shadow over Pakistan's general election on July 25, a historic event that will mark only the country's second-ever democratic transition of power. On Friday the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party handed over to a technocratic caretaker administration after completing a full five-year term, another democratic milestone. But as campaigning begins, tensions between the civilian politicians and the powerful military, which has ruled for about half of Pakistan's history since independence in 1947, are running high. Four PML-N lawmakers told Reuters they had received threats and pressure to switch allegiance to rival parties, while newspapers are awash with accusations of military "engineering" and journalists and media houses complaint of growing censorship. "It is a chipping away. It`s behind the scenes, under the covers, below the radar," PML-N's outgoing Privatisation Minister Daniyal Aziz told Reuters, using typically coded language to hint at meddling by the generals without naming them. The military, which strongly denies interfering in politics, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. The political tensions come at a time of growing economic instability in the nuclear-armed nation of 208 million people. Islamabad`s rapidly depleting currency reserves and a widening current account deficit have prompted many analysts to predict the next government will need to seek the country`s second International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout since 2013. PML-N founder Nawaz Sharif was ousted by the Supreme Court as prime minister in July and now faces corruption charges, events he has described as "pre-poll rigging" aimed at denying his party another term. He has cast the campaign as a battle to protect the "sanctity of the vote". Anti-corruption platform PML-N's main challenge is expected to come from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who is betting his anti-corruption message will propel him to power. Khan has denied the generals have thrown their weight behind PTI, and accuses Sharif of hiding behind such allegations to avoid accountability. In a statement, the PTI this week said: "Any deliberate or unconscious effort to compromise the sanctity of ballot could cause irreparable damage to national interests". But analysts and Western diplomats who spoke to Reuters said the military was squeezing PML-N ahead of polls. "This kind of interference has always been there, but this time it is so naked that everyone is seeing it and everyone is talking about it," said Ijaz Khan, a retired international relations professor at Peshawar University. A "Pre-Election Assessment Report" published this week by an independent think-tank, Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT), deemed the pre-poll process to have been "unfair overall" in the 12 months before the election was called last week. PILDAT said "surreptitious muzzling" of the media, a rise in bias from the military establishment and a "perceived partisanship in judicial and political accountability have nearly eroded the prospects of a free and fair election in 2018". Pakistan's biggest TV channel, Geo, went off air for several weeks in April and only returned after its executives struck a deal with the military over their coverage of Sharif, two executives told Reuters. Distribution of Dawn, the biggest English-language newspaper in the country, has been suspended from some military cantonment areas in several cities, a senior Dawn executive told Reuters. Many prominent columnists have put out statements about their work being censored, often by their own editors. Menacing phone calls A frequent complaint by Sharif, whose second term as prime minister was ended by a bloodless army coup in 1999, is that PML-N lawmakers are being intimidated. Four PML-N lawmakers from the Punjab province described to Reuters a similar pattern of strange calls and visits from unknown men who would pretend to be well-wishers, but then make clear to them it would be in their interest to ditch Sharif. None of the lawmakers wished to be identified. One recounted a recent, seemingly random, encounter with a man claiming to be a supporter that ended with the well-wisher telling him: "Your boss is a traitor. Traitors have no future in this country". Three of the lawmakers are sticking with PML-N but one has defected to PTI. All four said they believed the calls were from intelligence agents, though they did not have any proof. Reuters could not independently corroborate the events they described. In the last few months at least 15 National Assembly PML-N lawmakers have left the party, mostly to join PTI. PML-N officials say most were politicians who won their seats as independents in 2013 and joined PML-N afterwards. Khan has dismissed PML-N accusations the lawmakers were pressured into switching sides, but predicted in a recent meeting with foreign media that many more would follow. He believes such defections will be vital to gaining a foothold in Punjab, long a PML-N stronghold that returns 141 of the 272 directly contested seats in the National Assembly. In the dock Several senior PML-N figures are currently facing court cases after a flurry of charges against them.6 Among them, Sharif could be jailed for 14 years before the polls in a corruption trial he calls a "witch hunt", while Aziz, the former privatisation minister, is facing contempt of court charges that could bar him from standing in the election. The judiciary has denied targeting, or favouring, any political party, and rejects allegations from PML-N of collusion with the military to weaken the party. The Election Commision of Pakistan`s code of conduct for the pre-poll campaign period is shaping up to be the next battleground. Proposed new rules would prohibit anyone from criticising the military and the judiciary, while also banning politicians from talking about what they have achieved in government. With PML-N's electoral campaign built around touting mega infrastructure projects and defending civilian rule, the party is no doubt who this would hurt the most.

Election to test Pakistan democracy amid allegations of military meddling

The United States today said it supports free, fair, transparent and accountable elections in Pakistan which faces general elections on July 25.

It also expressed hope that the 2017 electoral reforms law, being put into effect from these elections, would help facilitate the peaceful transfer of civilian power to a democratically elected government.&nbsp

"The United States supports free, fair, and transparent, accountable elections in Pakistan as we do in other countries around the world," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters during her biweekly news conference.

The United States along with other international partners has supported Pakistan's implementation of its historic 2017 electoral reforms law, she said.

"My understanding is that this is the first time that that law will actually be put into effect for these elections. We hope that the new comprehensive and transparent legal framework facilitates the peaceful transfer of civilian power to a democratically elected government," Nauert said.

In response to a question, she said she is not aware if the United States is sending any observers on the ground.

"We tend to support international organisations that do participate as observers," she said.&nbsp

In the elections announced earlier this week, Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) is expected to be the main challenger to the ruling party.mangl

The present government will complete the tenure on May 31 and the caretaker government will take over form June 1 and remain in office until a new government is set up through elections.

It also expressed hope that the 2017 electoral reforms law, being put into effect from these elections, would help facilitate the peaceful transfer of civilian power to a democratically elected government

The United States today said it supports free, fair, transparent and accountable elections in Pakistan which faces general elections on July 25. It also expressed hope that the 2017 electoral reforms law, being put into effect from these elections, would help facilitate the peaceful transfer of civilian power to a democratically elected government. "The United States supports free, fair, and transparent, accountable elections in Pakistan as we do in other countries around the world," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters during her biweekly news conference. The United States along with other international partners has supported Pakistan's implementation of its historic 2017 electoral reforms law, she said. "My understanding is that this is the first time that that law will actually be put into effect for these elections. We hope that the new comprehensive and transparent legal framework facilitates the peaceful transfer of civilian power to a democratically elected government," Nauert said. In response to a question, she said she is not aware if the United States is sending any observers on the ground. "We tend to support international organisations that do participate as observers," she said. In the elections announced earlier this week, Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) is expected to be the main challenger to the ruling party.mangl The present government will complete the tenure on May 31 and the caretaker government will take over form June 1 and remain in office until a new government is set up through elections.

US says it supports free, fair and transparent elections in Pakistan

After days of deliberations over the appointment of a caretaker government, former Pakistan's chief justice Nasir-ul-Mulk was named as the caretaker Prime Minister on Monday.

As reported by the Dawn, Mulk's name was announced by leader of opposition Khursheed Shah at a press conference in Islamabad following a meeting with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

During the press conference, Prime Minister Abbasi said the caretaker Prime Minister must be someone "who no one can object to".

He further said that all the names proposed were considered and discussed and only then the name was decided upon.

"His role as a caretaker PM will be in favour of the country and the democratic process", Abbasi said.

He further requested Khursheed Shah to make the formal announcement.

As per reports, the name was chosen on basis of merit.

Shah said that the National Assembly speaker played an important role in deciding upon the name.

The caretaker Prime Minister would hold his position until the assembly elections are held on July 25 and results are announced.&nbsp

Nasir-ul-Mulk's name was announced by leader of opposition Khursheed Shah at a press conference in Islamabad

After days of deliberations over the appointment of a caretaker government, former Pakistan's chief justice Nasir-ul-Mulk was named as the caretaker Prime Minister on Monday. As reported by the Dawn, Mulk's name was announced by leader of opposition Khursheed Shah at a press conference in Islamabad following a meeting with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. During the press conference, Prime Minister Abbasi said the caretaker Prime Minister must be someone "who no one can object to". He further said that all the names proposed were considered and discussed and only then the name was decided upon. "His role as a caretaker PM will be in favour of the country and the democratic process", Abbasi said. He further requested Khursheed Shah to make the formal announcement. As per reports, the name was chosen on basis of merit. Shah said that the National Assembly speaker played an important role in deciding upon the name. The caretaker Prime Minister would hold his position until the assembly elections are held on July 25 and results are announced.

Pakistan: Former Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk elected to be caretaker Prime minister

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US Diplomat Donald Lu urges Pakistan to probe polls

No delay in Pakistan polls after security meeting

Election to test Pakistan democracy amid allegations of military meddling

US says it supports free, fair and transparent elections in Pakistan

Pakistan: Former Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk elected to be caretaker Prime minister