Pakistan Elections: Independent candidates backed by jailed ex-premier Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are posing are a tough challenge to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N in the key Punjab province, as per initial trends of the Pakistan general elections marred by terror attacks and violence which left at least twelve people, including 10 security personnel dead. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had deprived jailed 71-year-old former cricketer-turned-politician’s party of the electoral symbol of ‘bat’ over its failure to hold intra-party polls according to its Constitution, forcing it to field independent candidates. According to initial trends reported by private news channels based on partial counting, Imran Khan’s PTI-supported independent candidates were neck-and-neck with Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in…
