Party backed by Hafiz Saeed scores a duck; his son and son-in-law lose big

Extremist and banned groups, including Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-backed Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek, have failed miserably in Pakistan's general elections despite their massive campaign.

Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) has emerged as the single largest party in the country's general elections. While final results are expected in the coming hours, initial outcomes show that Imran Khan would become Pakistan's next Prime Minister. PTI supporters rejoiced by waving flags and raising party slogans as results trickled in after the voting on Wednesday.

Hundreds of individuals linked with hardline and banned groups were competing in the polls but so far, according to the unofficial results, none of them was seen as winning a seat in the national or provincial assemblies

Only few could garner a respectable number of votes including Maulana Muhammad Ahmad Ludhianvi whose name was removed from a banned list called Fourth Schedule ahead of election and allowed to contest, inviting international backlash.

Geo TV reported that hat Ludhianvi received more than 45,000 votes but was nowhere close to the victory.

Before the elections, concerns were raised in the country over the participation of hardline Islamist groups in large numbers.

Mili Muslim League linked with Saeed fielded dozens of candidates from the Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek as it was denied recognition by the Election Commission of Pakistan. Saeed himself led the campaign by addressing several rallies but his candidates were not seen anywhere near victory.

Hafiz Talha Saeed, the son of Hafiz Saeed, contested from NA-91 seat from Sargodha (about 200-km from Lahore), the home town of the Jamaat-ud Dawa leader. Saeed's son-in-law, Khalid Waleed, was a candidate in PP-167.

Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), a Sunni sectarian group, fielded more than 100 candidates but none of them came closer to victory, according to unofficial results so far.

Mutahida Majlis-e-Aml (MMA) was the biggest religious alliance of several leading parties was leading on only eight seats of national assembly despite massive campaign by its leader which included influential Maulana Fazlur Rehman. 

As per the latest results available, PTI was ahead in 119 of 272 contested National Assembly constituencies, while its main rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was way behind with 61 seats. The Pakistan People's Party was leading on 40 seats.

Pakistan's National Assembly comprises a total of 342 members, of which 272 are directly elected whereas the rest - 60 seats reserved for women and 10 for religious minorities - are selected later through proportional representation among parties with more than 5% of the vote.

A party can only form the government if it manages to clinch 172 seats in total. A single party will need at least 137 of the directly elected seats to be able to form the government on its own.

The PML-N and the PPP, both raised questions on the transparency of the vote counting process, alleging their polling agents were not allowed to verify vote counts as is mandated by law.