ISLAMABAD >> Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister on Monday defended the widely criticized delay in announcing the results of last week’s parliamentary election, saying authorities took only 36 hours to count over 60 million votes while grappling with militant attacks.

Anwaarul-Haq-Kakar insisted that a “level playing field” was available to all political parties, including that of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan, and pointed out that election results in 2018, when Khan won office, had been announced after 66 hours.

Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, won more seats than any other in Thursday’s election, but only because its candidates ran as independents after the party was expelled from the vote. The candidates won 93 out of 265 National Assembly seats, not enough to form a government. Khan couldn’t run because of criminal convictions that he calls politically motivated.

– The Associated Press