Imran Khan is in prison and his party was banned from participating in the elections (French)

Geo News reported on Friday that independent candidates supported by former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan won 47 seats out of a total of 106 whose votes have been counted so far in the national elections, with the counting process continuing.

The elections were held yesterday to compete for 265 seats out of 266 in the National Assembly, and any political party needs 133 seats to guarantee a majority by a small margin.

As for the PML-N, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has won at least 17 seats so far, may form a coalition government with independent candidates, according to what Geo News quoted Sharif’s assistant, Ishaq Dar, as saying on Friday.

“I am confident that we will form a government,” Ishaq Dar said, adding that his party would concede if any other party won clearly.

Earlier, the Election Commission said that the Pakistan People's Party, led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, won 12 seats. The rest of the seats were won by small parties or independents.

Khan is in prison, and his Tehreek-e-Insaf party was banned from participating in the elections that took place yesterday, Thursday, so his supporters ran in the elections as independents.

Analysts expect that there will be no clear winner in the elections, which increases the problems of the country, which is struggling to recover from an economic crisis while facing increasing violence from militants, in a highly polarized political environment.

The main battle was expected to be between candidates backed by Khan, whose party won the last national election, and the Muslim League. Khan believes the powerful army is behind a crackdown to eliminate his party, while analysts and opponents say Sharif has the support of army generals.

The military has controlled the nuclear-armed state directly or indirectly for 76 years since its independence, but it has said for several years that it does not interfere in politics.

Source: Agencies