Pakistan Security Brief

Nawaz Sharif visits Imran Khan in hospital to make peace; Coalition agreed open for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government; Independent legislators join PML-N in national and Punjab assemblies; PTI claims evidence of rigging, holds sit-in against vote rigging in Attock; Seven arrested in connection with ballot rigging; Thousands displaced from Kurram; Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan claims responsibility for Quetta suicide attack; Seven shot dead in Karachi; MQM holds protest against alleged vote rigging in Karachi; Musharraf cannot be tried under Anti Terrorism Act; Kayani calls Imran Khan to inquire after health; PPP to reach out to allies; Top U.S. AfPak official to leave Pentagon; U.S. officials reach out to Sharif; British police investigate Hussain's comments.

Domestic Politics

• Nawaz Sharif visited Imran Khan in the hospital on Tuesday, reportedly in order to make peace after ugly campaigns from both leaders. He brought flowers and offered to play a metaphircal friendly cricket match with Khan. Sharif said that Khan was “receptive” and acknowledged his gesture, while in a press release Khan confirmed the meeting and “cordial atmosphere.” The two reportedly plan to work together to tackle major problems such as domestic terrorism.[1]

• A power sharing formula in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was agreed upon on Wednesday. The ruling coalition will consist of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), and Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), with the PTI holding the chief minister and speaking positions and the JI and QWP each getting three ministries. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) will sit in opposition, although it alleges poll rigging and does not accept the PTI's mandate, according to JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Rehman demanded re-elections and threatened protests if new polls were not held. The PTI is holding discussions on whom to appoint as provincial chief minister, a position for which Imran Khan reportedly backs PTI leader Asad Qaisar. Pervez Khattak is also reportedly in the running.[2]

• More independent candidates in the national and Punjab assemblies are joining the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), including from Balochistan, Kohistan, and Swabi, raising PML-N's share of National Assembly seats from 126 to 220. In the Punjab Assembly, 34 out of 39 independents have allied themselves with the PML-N, which already had a two-thirds majority.[3]

• The PTI claimed in a message on Tuesday it has evidence of “significant rigging instances” in twenty constituencies, and asked the Supreme Court and Election Commission of Pakistan to take the allegations seriously. PTI Punjab president Ejaz Chaudhry also asked the party’s leadership not to stop protesters staging a sit-in in Defence Housing Authority. Imram Khan is demanding a recount in four constituencies, with votes verified with fingerprints[4]

• Members of the PTI in Attock began a sit-in on Tuesday near the Judicial Complex in protest of alleged vote rigging in the NA-57 Attock-1 constituency. The constituency's losing candidate is seeking a recount of votes.[5]

• On Wednesday, the arrest of seven men allegedly involved in rigging activities in Karachi was announced. They were reportedly members of an unnamed political party.[6]

• A Joint Interrogation Team (JIT) has found that former President Pervez Musharraf cannot be tried in the judges' detention case under 1997's Anti-Terrorism Act as the Islamabad High Court desired he be.[7]

• Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani called Imran Khan on Tuesday to inquire after his health and congratulate him on his party's victory in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.[8]

• Election officials rejected a petition submitted by Hamid Khan of the PTI alleging vote rigging in Lahore’s NA-125 constituency on Tuesday, saying that the PTI should accept its defeat.[9]

• The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) began a sit-in protest in Karachi on Tuesday despite the imposition of provincial ordinance banning political protests in the city. The MQM reportedly wants re-polling to be held in all of NA-250, rather than in select polling stations, as the Election Commission of Pakistan has directed.[10]

• As of Tuesday, losing PTI candidates across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa continued to stage demonstrations against alleged vote rigging.[11]

• On Wednesday, the PML-N will take a decision on who is to be the Speaker of the National Assembly. Two names have been shortlisted: Abdul Qadir Baloch and Mehmood Khan Achakzai, both senior politicians from Balochistan.[12]

• According to a report, the fairness of Pakistan’s election was reportedly increased by the use of technology, including an SMS service that told voters where their polling station was located and by voters using social media to document and spread evidence of foul play.[13]

• Bilawal Bhutto Zardari of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) said in a video message on Tuesday night that despite having a majority of seats in the Sindh provincial assembly, his party will reach out to allies. He also alleged vote-rigging, but accepted the election's results nonetheless for the good of continuing democracy.[14]

• A report in Dawn discusses the rise of sectarian parties in Pakistan's politics. In the past these parties allied with larger, mainstream ones but in Saturday's elections several put up candidates of their own, though sectarian parties won few seats.[15]

• Lawyer Mian Mohibullah Kakakhel challenged Pakistan Telecommunication Authority's ban on YouTube in the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday, saying that banning the site was not a solution to restricting access to blasphemous videos, such as the one that resulted in the banning of the site last year. He claimed that blocking the site, which also hosts educational and religious videos, is a violation of people's right to information.[16]

• U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• U.S. officials, including President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson offered their congratulations to Nawaz Sharif. Obama and Kerry both telephoned Sharif and expressed wishes for meeting in the near future, and all made comments about the importance of a good relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan.[17]

• David Sedney, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary for Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia announced that he will be leaving his post on May 31 after being one of the longest-serving DASDs in the Pentagon's policy team. He will be replaced by Navy Reserve Rear Adm. Michael J. Dumont.[18]U.K.-Pakistan Relations

• As of Wednesday, British police are looking into MQM leader and British citizen Altaf Hussain's statements that Karachi should separate from the rest of Pakistan if Pakistan’s “establishment” didn’t like the outcome of elections. Promoting hatred and violence is liable to punishment under British laws, according to British High Commissioner Adam Thomson, and British police may take action soon.[19]

Militancy

• Thousands of people have been displaced from Kurram in the past week as the Pakistan Army launches a new offensive against militants in the area. According to the chief of disaster management efforts in Kurram on Wednesday, 35-49,000 have left their homes for relatives' houses or refugee camps. According to Kurram elders, 12,000 families have migrated, and 64 have died due to poor conditions for internally displaced persons (IDPs), including hunger, natural calamities, and accidents. Tribal elder Hafizullah demanded that the government register them as IDPs and provide them with facilities.[20]

• The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), based in Waziristan, has claimed responsibility for the May 12 suicide bombing targeting the Quetta Police Inspector General. The suicide bomber himself was reportedly an Uzbek aligned with al-Qaeda. According to an IMU spokesman, the attack was retaliation for an aerial attack by the Pakistan Army in April which targeted an IMU-run religious seminary.[21]

• On Tuesday in Badaber police forces killed two militants after the militants threw a hand grenade at a check post. One passer-by was killed and another was wounded in the crossfire.[22]

• A sanitation worker with the Frontier Corps killed one soldier and wounded five when he opened fire on policemen in a check post in Bara on Tuesday. No motive has been determined.[23]

• Seven people were shot dead in Karachi on Tuesday in incidents around the city. Two of the dead were political activists, one for the JI and one for the MQM.[24]