New Delhi: After the final seat tally was officially announced, India on Saturday formally welcomed the fact that “the people of Pakistan have reposed their faith in democracy through general elections” and hoped “the new government” would work for a South Asia “free of terror and violence”. But India did not mention the new prime minister-in-waiting Imran Khan by name or respond to his offer for talks.Three days after the July 25 polling date, the Election Commission of Pakistan released the official results, with 115 seats for Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). At second place was the erstwhile ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) with 64 seats, followed by the Pakistan’s Peoples Party with 43 seats.The PTI has emerged as the single largest party but is short of the majority mark of 137 in the National Assembly. As per Pakistani media reports, PTI has already reached out to smaller parties for support to form a coalition government. Among the smaller parties in the assembly are the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), a coalition of religious parties, with 12 seats, and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) with 6 seats.A couple of hours after the much-delayed official results were out, India issued a public response.“We welcome that the people of Pakistan have reposed their faith in democracy through general elections,” said MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, adding that India “desires a prosperous and progressive Pakistan at peace with its neighbours”.“We hope that the new Government of Pakistan will work constructively to build a safe, stable, secure and developed South Asia free of terror and violence,” said Kumar.Earlier on Thursday, Khan had said that it would be “good for all of us” if Pakistan had good relations with India.He advocated improved trade ties, but also referred to the Kashmir dispute as the “core issue” between the two South Asian countries.“We are at square one right now [with India]. If India’s leadership is ready, we are ready to improve ties with India. If you step forward one step, we will take two steps forward,” Khan said in a victory speech on Thursday.The Indian statement did not directly address the invitation for talks, nor did it refer to Imran Khan as Pakistan’s next prime minister.India’s official position has been that it is ready to talk on all contentious issues, including Kashmir with Pakistan, but only after Islamabad stops cross-border terrorism.Five years ago, India’s first response to the 2013 Pakistani general elections had been a swift congratulatory letter from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Nawaz Sharif on the day the results were released.“This historic election is also a significant victory for democracy in Pakistan. The people of India have watched with admiration the people of Pakistan braving violence and strife and turning out in large numbers to affirm their democratic rights,” Singh wrote in his letter of May 12, 2013.During the campaign for the 2013 elections, Sharif had stated that he wanted warmer ties with India. This was also alluded to by Singh who welcomed “your publicly articulated commitment to a relationship between India and Pakistan that is defined by peace, friendship and cooperation”.Singh had also extended Sharif an invitation to visit India. However, Sharif only travelled to India for the oath-taking ceremony of Narendra Modi in May 2014.In contrast, Modi has yet to make any statement on Pakistan’s 2018 election and no letter has been sent to Imran Khan after the election results till now, sources confirmed.Sharif’s overtures to India were short-lived, with the army keeping a firm control on all aspects of Pakistan’s policy towards it eastern neighbour.With the recent history of bilateral ties in mind, Indian analysts have largely been sceptical about Imran Khan’s remarks on improving relations with New Delhi – especially given his close relations with the Pakistan military and Indian parliamentary elections also due in less than a year.In any event, the Indian side was unwilling to move ahead with the governments of Nawaz Sharif or Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, citing continuing acts of terror emanating from Pakistan and Islamabad’s failure to bring the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack to justice.While the Indian statement did not refer to Khan personally, there was also no mention about allegations the electoral process had been vitiated, as alleged by several Pakistani political parties and western nations.In their official responses to the Pakistan election results, both the United States and United Kingdom expressed concern about the pre-election environment, especially censorship of the media. The EU’s Election Observation Mission had noted that there had been a “systematic effort to undermine the former ruling party” in the run-up to the polls.They also criticised the participation of candidates from parties linked to terror groups, with the US commending “Pakistani voters for fully rejecting these candidates at the ballot box on Wednesday”.Pakistan’s closest ally, China had been the first to react to the elections, even as only unofficial leads were announced on Thursday morning.“We are pleased to see that Pakistan has held a successful election, and sincerely hope that Pakistan will maintain political and social stability and focus on national development…The Chinese side is ready to work with the new Pakistani government for greater progress in our all-weather strategic cooperative partnership,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang.Provincial resultsIn simultaneous elections to Pakistan’s provincial assemblies, Imran Khan’s PTI was swept back to power in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and is the second largest party in Punjab, just behind the PML-N. In Sindh, the PPP has won a majority of its own. In Balochistan, the Balochistan Awami Party leads the fray, followed by the MMA but will need to ally with smaller parties to form the provincial government.
