Pakistan’s incoming prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, leaves the hospital where Khan is recuperating after being injured during an election rally, in Lahore, yesterday.
LAHORE: Pakistani politician Imran Khan yesterday vowed to cooperate with incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif on terrorism and other major challenges following key elections.
Khan made the remarks from his hospital bed, where he is laid up with a fractured spine after falling at a campaign rally .
His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) bagged third place after Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and outgoing ruling Pakistan People’s Party.
“We have decided that despite severe differences that we have, we will work together to resolve major national problems, including terrorism,” Khan said in a video message aired during a PTI press conference.
He had criticised Sharif and the centre-right PML-N during the campaign for last Saturday’s general election and vowed to go into opposition.
Sharif pledged to work with Khan for the good of the country, after visiting the former cricket star in hospital on Tuesday.
Khan is credited with helping to inspire 60 percent turnout at the polls, having galvanised the youth and urban middle class, in particular with promises to end corruption, introduce tax reform and stand up to the Americans.
“Elections are over and we all as a nation want to move forward,” Khan said, adding he wanted all politicians and the military to sit yogether and find a solution to domestic terrorism, which has killed thousands of people in Pakistan.
“We cannot ensure prosperity until we eliminate the issue of terrorism,” he said.
Partial official results confirm PML-N with 123 seats, the PPP with 31 and PTI with 26. Results of another 18 of the 272 directly elected seats in the national assembly are still to be declared.
Khan’s party won the most seats in the Taliban-hit northwest, where he has vowed to put together a provincial coalition government and turn it into a “role model” for the rest of the country.
But he alleged yesterday that vote rigging had taken place in 25 constituencies and said he would ask the election commission to order recounting in at least four.
Khan had said Sharif was on a list drawn up of 500 corrupt people who would face the consequences if he was elected. But Sharif told media outside the hospital that they had sorted out their differences.
“I told him that we should work together to bring prosperity to the people of Pakistan. He also said that we should remove our anger,” Sharif said.
“We have completely solved our differences today. He assured me of a good working relationship.”
Khan electrified the campaign with his calls for a new Pakistan, galvanising the youth and urban middle class in particular.
He promised a “tsunami” that would sweep him into power, but then vowed to go into opposition and try to form a government in the Taliban-hit northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“He congratulated me for victory and I also congratulated him for his victory in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province,” Sharif said.
“We don’t have any personal rivalry. Pakistan is in trouble and we should work together to give a better Pakistan to next generations.”
US President Barack Obama called Sharif to congratulate him on his win and pledge strong cooperation with Islamabad.
“Today the president spoke by phone with Nawaz Sharif to congratulate him on his party’s success in May 11 parliamentary elections,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
“The president also thanked Mr Sharif for his role in the historic transfer of power between civilian governments, a significant milestone in Pakistan’s democracy,” Carney said.
“The two leaders agreed to continue to work together to strengthen US-Pakistan relations and advance our shared interest of a stable, secure, and prosperous Pakistan and region,” the statement said.
Obama also praised the “extraordinary voter turnout and courage” shown by Pakistanis determined to cast their votes despite intimidation and violence by extremists.
Sharif said after his election that he would extend “full support” to Washington as US and Nato troops withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Agencies
