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What Are the Key Takeaways From Pakistan’s Election?
Voice of America
FILE - Election workers empty ballot boxes after polls closed at a station during the general election in Lahore, Pakistan, Feb. 8, 2024. No single party succeeded in winning a simple majority in the National Assembly. FILE - Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif speaks at the party office of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), at Model Town in Lahore, Pakistan, Feb. 9, 2024. FILE - A portrait of former Prime Minister Imran Khan is seen amid flags of PTI and Jamat-e-Islami supporters at a joint protest demanding fair results outside election offices in Karachi, Feb. 10, 2024.
A week after Pakistan’s general elections delivered a hung parliament, runners-up are poised to form a coalition government while the winners continue to protest the results. Observers say the election delivered surprises for all stakeholders.
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Dana Shem Tov, sister of Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, reacts as she watches his televised release by Hamas militants at the family home in Tel Aviv on Feb. 22, 2025. A woman mourns at a memorial for deceased hostages Shiri Bibas, her two children, Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz at “Hostages Square,” while Israelis gather while waiting for the release of six hostages in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 22, 2025. Omer Wenkert, a hostage held in Gaza since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, is escorted by Hamas militants as he is released in Nuseirat, Gaza Strip, on Feb. 22, 2025.
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A mahout sprays water over elephants during their daily bath in a river, at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala on Feb. 16, 2025 as Sri Lanka's main elephant orphanage marked its 50th anniversary. Tourists take pictures as elephants return to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage after taking their daily bath in a river in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka, on Feb. 16, 2025. Elephants stroll across the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka, on Feb. 16, 2025.
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A poster shows pictures of the Bibas family, top row from second left: Yarden, Shiri, and their sons Ariel and Kfir, who were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, in Jerusalem, Feb. 21, 2025. Words above read, '37 members of Kibbutz Nir Oz are still missing.' Palestinian Hamas militants and people gather at the site of the handing over of the bodies of four Israeli hostages in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 20, 2025.