According to the latest Election Commission data, results of 224 constituencies out of 265 were declared. Independent candidates (mostly supported by PTI) bagged 92 seats while PML-N got 63 and PPP 50. Smaller parties secured 19 seats. Authorities were earlier moving at a snail’s pace to announce the election results that in a surprising development showed Khan’s PTI supported Independent candidates leading the show. The ECP started updating results at a faster pace after facing a barrage of criticism by the parties, especially the PTI which accused that its mandate was being stolen. Khan, 71, a cricketer-turned-politician and the founding chairman of the PTI, is behind bars and barred from contesting. PTI candidates are running as Independents after they were not allowed to use the party symbol - a cricket ‘bat’. PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Khan on Friday ruled out forging an alliance with the PPP and PML-N, saying his party is in a position to form a federal government on its own.

 

He claimed that his party was winning 150 National Assembly seats and would be able to achieve the required number of seats to form Government at the Centre. “We are not intending to form a coalition Government with PPP and PML-N,” he said. “We will form the government at the Centre and Punjab,” said Gohar Khan, who won NA-10 in the Buner area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. PTI’s former parliament speaker Asad Qaisar also won. The big names who won included PML-N top leaders, including former premier Sharif who won by a big margin by getting 171,024 votes against PTI-backed Independent Dr Yasmin Rashid who polled 115,043 in Lahore. His younger brother and former premier Shehbaz Sharif also won, in addition to his son Hamza Shehbaz and Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz. All four family members scored victories from Lahore, their home and party’s stronghold.