Pakistan poll results: How the country elected a parliament of ‘Independents’ in 1985

Pakistan general election results have stumped many as they defy political pundits’ predictions of a two-way contest between Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Despite facing odds, Independent candidates backed by imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party are leading the race. PTI-backed candidates have won 92 of the 253 counted National Assembly seats. Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N has bagged 71 seats, while PPP is a distant third with 54 seats, as per Dawn. The results of over a dozen seats are not out yet. Uncertainty looms large in Pakistan as no party is touching the majority mark of 133, paving the way for a coalition government. According to the non-profit electoral watchdog Free and Fair Election Network, about 100 of the winning candidates are Independents, of which 92 are supported by PTI, Reuters reported. This is not the first time that such a significant number of independents have been elected to Pakistan’s Parliament. In 1985, the country had held non-party general elections wherein every contender fought in their individual capacity. Let’s take a closer look. Will PTI-backed Independents form the next government? Khan in an AI-generated speech has claimed that its affiliated candidates clinched a “two-third majority” and were winning over 150 seats before rigging started, Dawn reported. PTI leader Barrister Gohar Khan told media on Saturday (10 February) that the PTI has won 170 National Assembly seats out of the 265 where elections were held. “We claim with great certitude that right now, the PTI has achieved a lead on 170 seats of the National Assembly. “Out of these, 94 are those that the ECP is admitting and has issued Form-47 (provisional results),” Gohar said, as per Dawn. He also said the Imran Khan will take a decision regarding a prime minister, adding that the party was yet to take a call on alliance partners. Khan’s PTI party was barred from using its iconic symbol — a cricket bat – by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), forcing the candidates to run as independents. This means that despite winning the highest overall seats, the PTI alone cannot stake a claim to form the government as it would not be allotted a quota of minority seats, according to Dawn. [caption id=“attachment_13712702” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Supporters of imprisoned Pakistan’s Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party block a road as a protest against the delaying result of parliamentary election by Pakistan Election Commission, in Lahore, 9 February 2024. AP[/caption] The winning independent candidates need to ally or merge with a party to form a government. Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Oves Anwar, director of the Islamabad-based Research Society of International Law, said he “does not see any problem” in independent candidates forming a government. “There is no legal issue as independents can create a coalition or form national unity government with other smaller parties,” Anwar added. Journalist Shahzeb Jilani told Dawn that returned candidates, once notified, have three days to decide if they want to independently back a political party or join a party as a bloc. If PTI-backed candidates want to emerge as the largest group in Parliament, they would need to merge with an existing political party, experts say. As per Dawn, there is a possibility of PTI-backed independents merging with the Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) to keep its flock united and stake claim to reserved seats for women and minorities. If this happens, they can be a contender for the Leader of the House, if not, then for the Leader of the Opposition, the Pakistani newspaper reported. ALSO READ: Pakistan election results 2024: How no PM has ever completed a full term A look at Pakistan’s non-party elections in 1985 Pakistan witnessed its second military coup on 5 July 1977 when General Zia-ul Haq engineered a coup d’état against the then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan Peoples Party. While the military leader had vowed to the nation to hold general elections within 90 days, it was only in 1985 that General Zia fulfilled that promise. [caption id=“attachment_13712712” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Pakistanese Chief of Army staff General Muhammad Zia-Ul-Haq, who leads army coup, gives a speech on Pakistan radio, 5 July 1977. AFP File Photo[/caption] Elections were held in Pakistan but no political party was allowed to participate. For this, Zia amended the 1973 Constitution, changing the country’s governance from a parliamentary democracy to a semi-presidential system. He also gave himself powers to overthrow the elected government through the 8th Amendment, noted Indian Express. Pakistan conducted polls on 25 February 1985 on a non-party basis. Zia believed this would help create a popular support base for him and make it easier to control Parliament without political parties influencing the representatives, reported Indian Express. Some political parties allowed their leaders to enter the fray as independent candidates. After the elections, some parties claimed victory over a number of seats as the candidate backed by them had won, as per a Dawn report. The 1985 elections saw the entry of new faces from the landed aristocracy and business barons in Parliament, the report added. Speaking to Dawn, journalist Wusatullah Khan said that “during General Ziaul Haq’s time, the entire Parliament was made up of independents.” “Obviously everyone had someone’s support but on paper they were all independent,” he added. According to Indian Express, these non-party elections were significant for two reasons. One, the Parliament was allowed to form political parties after the results, leading to the emergence of a two-party parliamentary system. As Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi and Ijaz Shafi Gilani noted in the research paper ‘The First 10 General Elections of Pakistan’, the “process gave birth to a Muslim League which subsequently became a key player in politics. It was birthed under military oversight, but assumed a character of its own over the period of its adulthood… Since 1985 Pakistan’s political scene thrived because the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League were able to accommodate large sections of Pakistani voters under their banners.” Secondly, Pakistan’s powerful military realised it did not need to always organise a coup to influence the country’s political climate. “It seems that they came to the conclusion that ‘oversight’ is better than overlordship,” Indian Express cited the paper as saying. What critics say about the 1985 elections The ‘partyless’ polls are highly criticised by observers. Senior journalist Tahir Mehdi told Dawn: “The 1985 elections were the ones that corrupted and damaged the entire electoral system of parliamentary democracy, parties, administration, etc. Even today, this practice of independent candidates joining political parties after the elections … the root cause of this evil was in 1985 elections.” Dr Hasan Zafar wrote in his analysis for The Friday Times that the political parties birthed after 1985 were “bereft of any democratic culture. Those which had existed before – PPP, PML, JI and ANP – couldn’t remain unblemished either. The intra-party elections – it is well known – became a joke. Conversely, dynasties emerged within the political parties, making them family incorporated, if not a political gang per se, in the way they functioned. In the face of all this, democracy limped and the economy began to crawl on all fours.” Veteran journalist Mazhar Abbas believes that the 1985 polls were “rigged” and hurt the fabric of Pakistan’s society. “Non-party-based elections in itself is a form of pre-poll rigging. That approach divided the society into feudals, caste system, etc,” he said in an interview with Dawn News English. With inputs from agencies