Thursday, July 26, 2018

Russia investigation: Donald Trump's latest tweet is bad, even for him - Independent

Russia investigation: Donald Trump's latest tweet is bad, even for him
Posted on July 25, 2018 by Mimi Launder in news 
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President Donald Trump, otherwise known as the man whose campaign is under investigation over its ties to Russia, is worried about Russian interference.

No, he's not come around and, yes, still thinks the Mueller investigation is a "witch hunt": instead, he is attempting to everyone of his genuine concern that Russia will meddle in the upcoming election in support of the Democrats.


Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
 I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!

1:50 AM - Jul 25, 2018


Amid repeated dismissals of allegations of collusion between Russia and his campaign, Trump tweeted his concern that Russia "will be pushing very hard for the Democrats" in the upcoming election.

Crucially, the first trial in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia is set to start this week, examining former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. 

Yet Russians are quaking in fear of Republicans, according to Trump, who boasted that "no president has been tougher on Russia than me" - a baseless assertion at odds with his flattering treatment of Vladmir Putin.

Last week, Trump went as far as to back Russian denials over interference in the 2016 election, before backpedalling following fierce bipartisan condemnation with a questionable excuse.

Confused? Terrified? Want out? So does everyone else.

David Axelrod

@davidaxelrod
 Truly unbelievable.  Just a week ago, he was practically sitting on Putin’s lap.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!

7:11 AM - Jul 25, 2018

Mehdi Hasan

@mehdirhasan
 Putin *literally* stood next to Trump and *literally* said he preferred Trump to the Democrats

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!

3:53 AM - Jul 25, 2018
798
323 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy

rabia O'chaudry

@rabiasquared
 Does he think he has the Men In Black memory eraser gadget or something

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!

3:19 AM - Jul 25, 2018

Scott Santens

@scottsantens
 I don't bookmark many tweets, but this is one of them, and it's not because it's one of the most absurd tweets I've ever read. This tweet isn't funny. It's horrifying. This tweet is dangerous. This tweet is pure doublethink.

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!

6:14 AM - Jul 25, 2018

Angry WH Staffer
@AngrierWHStaff
 I can name approximately 44 Presidents that have been tougher on Russia than Trump.

Keeping in mind a solid number of them didn’t know Russia existed.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!

3:10 AM - Jul 25, 2018
1,656
344 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy


Some people are calling this gaslighting.
Only that Trump is not an unpleasant ex, but one of the most powerful men in the world trying to manipulate everyone in it as allegations over collusion with Russia heat up.


Neera Tanden 🌊

@neeratanden
 This guy is taking gaslighting to a new level.  And also thinks his base are morons.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!

2:26 AM - Jul 25, 2018

Carolyn
@carolyn145
 Oh FFS. Putin said he wanted you to win.
Listen sweetie, little Poodle, you will not gaslight us.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!

11:13 AM - Jul 25, 2018

Alyssa Milano

@Alyssa_Milano
 Flipping the narrative. He really thinks the American people are idiots.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!

3:38 AM - Jul 25, 2018

David Hoffman
@atDavidHoffman
 Oh. Just. Stop. It.
Even your supporters aren’t stupid enough to believe this.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!

6:35 AM - Jul 25, 2018


One person beautifully corrected the tweet.

Full Frontal

@FullFrontalSamB
2:14 AM - Jul 25, 2018


The Russians aren't the only ones who "definitely don't want Trump".

Chris Evans

@ChrisEvans
 Neither did we.

Also, this might be the funniest thing you’ve ever tweeted, Biff.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!

8:08 AM - Jul 25, 2018


Other people are asking why Trump is not funding greater election security, given his worries.

Ron Wyden

@RonWyden
 If you are actually serious about protecting our elections, @realDonaldTrump, put your money where your mouth is and pass my PAVE Act to require paper ballots for all federal elections. https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-gillibrand-markey-merkley-murray-and-warren-introduce-bill-to-secure-elections- …

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!

3:39 AM - Jul 25, 2018


Ted Lieu

@tedlieu
 Dear @realDonaldTrump: Based on your statement below, I look forward to you pushing for funding for election security. The House GOP voted last week to turn down that funding. Tell them they are wrong. Thanks.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!

3:23 AM - Jul 25, 2018

Saudi Arabia suspends oil shipments through Red Sea strait after Houthi attack - NBC News ( source : Reuters )

Saudi Arabia suspends oil shipments through Red Sea strait after Houthi attack
The route is used by tankers heading from the Middle East through the Suez Canal to Europe.
by Reuters / Jul.26.2018

Saudi Arabia said Thursday it was "temporarily halting" all oil shipments through the Red Sea shipping lane of Bab al-Mandeb — one of the most important tanker routes in the world — after an attack on two ships by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militants.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the Houthis attacked two Saudi vessels Wednesday morning, one of which sustained minor damage.

The strait, where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Sea, is only 12 miles wide, making hundreds of ships potentially an easy target.

Tankers heading from the Middle East through the Suez Canal to Europe pass near the shores of Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Houthis in a three-year war.

Fighting intensifies around airport in Yemen port city
JUN.17.201801:11
The Saudi coalition intervened in Yemen's civil war in 2015 to restore the internationally recognized government of exiled president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Saudi Arabia accuses regional arch-foe Iran of supplying missiles to the Houthis, which both Tehran and the Houthis deny.

A Western-backed coalition of Sunni Muslim states, led by Saudi Arabia, launched an offensive in June to wrest Yemen's main port of Hodeidah from the Houthis. The Houthis hold the most populated areas of Yemen including the capital, Sanaa.

The coalition called a halt to the offensive earlier this month in order to give U.N. efforts a chance to reach a political solution that would avert an assault on the port, a lifeline for millions of Yemenis. The United Nations fears a famine in the impoverished country.

Millions at risk of starvation in Yemen amid new military offensive
JUN.15.201801:30
Most exports from the Gulf that transit the Suez Canal and the SUMED Pipeline also pass through Bab al-Mandeb strait.

An estimated 4.8 million barrels per day of crude oil and refined petroleum products flowed through this waterway in 2016 towards Europe, the United States and Asia, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Thousands of civilians have been killed in Yemen during the conflict, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has said

How Kavanaugh could shape the coming "watershed" moment for digital privacy - CBS News

July 26, 2018, 5:51 AM
How Kavanaugh could shape the coming "watershed" moment for digital privacy

 Jul 26, 2018

Over the course of the next two decades, the Supreme Court will likely undertake some of the most consequential digital privacy cases that will reverberate across generations to come. And Judge Brett Kavanaugh's likely addition to the high court, along with President Trump's first nominee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, will be deciding voices.

"I think the next decade of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence is going to be fascinating," said Christopher Slobogin, a law professor at Vanderbilt University Law School and director of the school's Criminal Justice Program.

"This is a watershed moment, because technology — police are using technology, and eventually the court's going to have to recognize that and respond to it," Slobogin added.

What is the future of privacy, surveillance and policing technology under Trump and Sessions?
More and more, the courts are going to have to decide where to draw the line, as law enforcement looks to things like drones, facial recognition software and predictive policing — determining who might commit a crime before they do —  through social media, Slobogin said. Those technologies raise new legal questions, Slobogin said, because most people don't think of their social media communications as being public. Do police need a warrant before they access that kind of information? Slobogin posed.

Technology almost always outpaces laws — just watch one of the Facebook hearings Congress held earlier this year to see why laws created by those who don't grasp technology are behind in legislating it. The courts, too, are playing catch-up, navigating the Fourth Amendment's right of the people against unreasonable searches and seizures, and making probable cause the standard for a warrant, in a world in which technology is ever-expanding, ever-advancing, and ever-enhancing law enforcement's capabilities.

Kavanaugh's record when it comes to digital privacy and Fourth Amendment issues isn't particularly extensive. But it's extensive enough to stall GOP Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's support, who has yet to announce whether he'll vote yes on the president's latest Supreme Court pick, and to incite the outright protest of Republican Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, although as a member of the House he doesn't play a role in the confirmation process. Paul, who met with Kavanaugh on Tuesday, told Politico earlier this week he has serious concerns about Kavanaugh's record on the issue.

"I am honestly undecided," he told Politico. "I am very concerned about his position on privacy and the Fourth Amendment. This is not a small deal for me. This is a big deal."

"When Kavanaugh is on the Supreme Court, undermining our #4thAmendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures, it will be too late for others to join me," Amash tweeted earlier this month.


Justin Amash

@justinamash
 When Kavanaugh is on the Supreme Court, undermining our #4thAmendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures, it will be too late for others to join me. http://on.theatln.tc/okWs8iS

3:15 AM - Jul 19, 2018

The Only Republican Opposing Brett Kavanaugh
Representative Justin Amash is the sole member of Congress who's come out against the Supreme Court nominee, citing his record on privacy. Can he get Senator Rand Paul to join him?

theatlantic.com

But Kavanaugh's record does offer a window into where he might land on the Fourth Amendment — which protects the right of the people against unreasonable search and seizure and requires probable cause as a standard for a warrant — in the years to come.

"My guess is he'd be like Alito," Slobogin said, meaning Justice Samuel Alito, on issues of privacy and the Fourth Amendment. Alito has often sided with the government law enforcement in a number of cases about the constitutionality of police searches.

Perhaps Kavanaugh's most famous decision related to digital privacy and the Fourth Amendment was a 2015 case about the NSA's metadata collection program. That program, unearthed by the controversial NSA leaker Edward Snowden, let the NSA collect millions of call records without disclosure. Kavanaugh's court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, threw out another judge's ruling that would have stopped the NSA from collecting the records.

Kavanaugh, in a solo concurrence with the decision, declared the program was "entirely consistent with the Fourth Amendment." He reached that conclusion partly by reasoning from what's known as the third-party doctrine — judicial philosophy that asserts once people give up their information to a third party, like a private telephone company, they also surrender an expectation of privacy and the government can use it. The third-party doctrine Kavanaugh used, Slobogin said, is on "life support" in the digital age in which people give up vast amounts of information to companies on an almost daily basis and the Supreme Court begins to recognize that in its opinions.

But, even if the government's collection of the phone data constituted a reasonable search, Kavanaugh, who was working in the Bush White House on Sept. 11, 2001, said it falls under a "special need" exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement — the national security and the need to fight terrorism. Matthew Feeney, a policy analyst and director of emerging technologies at the libertarian Cato Institute, called Kavanaugh's reasoning a "lawyer-y way of saying, 'because 9/11,'" when the 9/11 Commission report Kavanaugh cites doesn't even call for such a broad metadata collection program.

"My real concern is then the turn that the concurrence takes, which is to mention that the warrantless collection of millions of Americans data would not run afoul of the Fourth Amendment thanks to the special needs doctrine" said Feeney, who called Kavanaugh's reasoning basically the "widest application" of the special needs doctrine he's seen.

In another case, a stop-and-frisk case called United States v. Askew, Kavanaugh authored a 32-page dissent arguing that the police unzipping a person's jacket — which in this case revealed a gun — constituted a lawful part of eyewitness identification. Kavanaugh argued that prohibiting police from "conducting identification procedures that constitute searches would lead to absurd and dangerous results."

In 2010, Kavanaugh dissented from the D.C. court's decision not to revisit a case that decided police violated a suspect's Fourth Amendment rights by using a GPS tracker on him without a warrant. If anything, placing the GPS tracker may have violated the Fourth Amendment, but using it to track a person's movements did not, Kavanaugh suggested. He based his reasoning on a 1983 case called States v. Knotts, which determined the government didn't violate a person's Fourth Amendment rights by using a radio transmitter to track his movements, because the decision determined a person "traveling in an automobile on public thoroughfares has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements from one place to another."

The case Kavanaugh dissented on in 2010 would eventually reach the Supreme Court as United States v. Jones. The high court disagreed with Kavanaugh and ruled unanimously in 2012 that installing a GPS tracking device on a car and using it to monitor the vehicle's movements constituted an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment. On the lower court, Kavanaugh had concluded that the individual's Fourth Amendment rights had not been violated.

Another recent landmark case in the Supreme Court was Carpenter v. United States, in which the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in June that the government had conducted an unconstitutional search by failing to obtain a warrant based on probable cause before using a suspect's cell phone records to track his location and movement.

Still, it's hard to predict how a Justice Kavanaugh would exercise jurisprudence differently than a Judge Kavanaugh, Slobogin points out. Circuit court judges rely heavily on precedent, as do Supreme Court justices, but Supreme Court justices have more latitude in their opinions.

Slobogin said Gorsuch, who wrote his own dissent in Carpenter questioning the third-party doctrine but dissenting nonetheless, is "a justice in the Scalia mold when it comes to the Fourth Amendment."

"He is not happy at all with the expectation of privacy test," Slobogin said, adding Gorsuch thinks such judicial philosophy is a "court-fabricated doctrine" not guaranteed by the Constitution.

Kavanaugh and Gorsuch could either expand on the Fourth Amendment protections spelled out in the, albeit narrow, Carpenter and Jones decisions, or stall progress on guaranteeing Fourth Amendment protections, Slobogin said.

"I think they're crucial because if they sign on to the momentum that Jones and Carpenter have established, then we're going to see significant change in Fourth Amendment doctrine," Slobogin said. "If on the other hand they put the brakes on what we've seen. ... If they're hostile to what we've seen since 2012, then at best I think you'll see very slow, incremental change."

It's quite possible, if not likely, that Kavanaugh will be reviewing cases involving technology most people haven't dreamed of yet, Feeney said.

"There will be in the next couple of decades cases involving surveillance technology that we're adapting to and getting used to now, but I'm sure there will be cases involving technologies that we're not even thinking about," Feeney said.

Imran Khan: Cricket hero who could be Pakistan's next PM - BBC News

Imran Khan: Cricket hero who could be Pakistan's next PM
25 July 2018

Imran Khan is a former international cricket star who promises a "new Pakistan" and an end to corruption if he wins the general election.

The charismatic aristocrat who captained Pakistan to a World Cup victory in 1992 has long shed his celebrity playboy image and now styles himself as a pious, populist, anti-poverty reformer.

Mr Khan, 65, struggled for years to turn popular support into electoral gains. He launched his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in 1996 but he was the only candidate in the party to win a seat in 2002. The PTI boycotted the 2008 vote.

Although he has long been one of Pakistan's best-known faces internationally, he spent years on the political sidelines. That led to teasing - for some Imran Khan became "Imran Khan't".

It took until the last general election in 2013 for his party to emerge as a serious player, when it narrowly missed becoming the second largest nationally.

But five years on, he is tipped as a leading contender for prime minister in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed Islamic republic and a potential flashpoint because of its rocky relations with India and Afghanistan.

However Mr Khan has faced accusations - which he denies - that he is the military's favoured candidate and that its intelligence service has been working behind the scenes against his key rivals.

If his long wait for the top job is finally to end, he needs an an electoral swing of epic proportions.

The PTI currently holds just under one-tenth of the 342 seats in the National Assembly and will need to make huge gains in the crucial province of Punjab, which has more than half of the 272 directly-elected seats.

It's also the power base of the ousted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.

'Playboy image'
Oxford-educated Mr Khan had an illustrious career in international cricket spanning two decades from the 1970s.

Imran Khan was at the helm for one of his country's great triumphs
He also developed a reputation as something of a playboy on the London nightclub circuit, though he denies that he ever drank alcohol or engaged in any activities that may be considered inappropriate for a conservative Pakistani Muslim.

Many say his subsequent forays into the fields of philanthropy and politics were fuelled by a desire to put to use the leadership qualities and goodwill he acquired as a cricketer.

His pin-up looks and private life have ensured he's been a favourite of the world's media for decades.

In 1995, at the age of 43, he married the 21-year-old British socialite, Jemima Goldsmith - the daughter of one of the world's richest men at the time, Sir James Goldsmith.

The marriage produced two boys but was dissolved in 2004. The split was amicable, and Mr Khan appears to have maintained a friendly relationship with his ex-wife.

Imran Khan and Jemima Goldsmith's union was dissolved in 2004
A second marriage in 2015, to journalist Reham Khan, lasted less than a year. The former BBC weather presenter alleges she was bullied by his supporters and has written a tell-all memoir.

It has been making waves in Pakistan, where its publication was put on hold by the courts in the run-up to the election.

Mr Khan wed again in 2018 in a low-profile ceremony in Lahore.

His third wife Bushra Watto, a mother of five, was described as his spiritual adviser, and observers say the match plays well with his public shows of devotion to Islam.

As a politician, Imran Khan's views have often shifted or been vague. Many accuse him of U-turns. What he would actually do in power is largely unclear.

Imran Khan supporters think their time has come
He upholds liberalism but at the same time appeals to Islamic values and anti-West sentiment, especially when it comes to perceived interference in Pakistan's internal affairs. He campaigned vocally against US drone strikes against militants in Pakistan's tribal areas as part of the "war on terror".

He has criticised some of the Taliban's violence but last year his party's government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province gave $3m (£2.3m) to the notorious Haqqania madrassa. Its head, Maulana Sami-ul Haq, is known as the "father of the Taliban". Imran Khan has had to fight off taunts he should be called "Taliban Khan".

But it's his campaign against corruption and dynastic politics in Pakistan, and a promise to raise a whole new class of "clean" politicians, that seems to have chimed with his supporters.

He has sought to ride a wave of disillusionment at Pakistan's old political order, particularly among the urban middle class and young voters, who are tired of living in a country with an economy and currency on the slide, and water and power supply in constant crisis.

The main target of his anti-corruption campaign has been his arch-rival Nawaz Sharif.

The Panama Papers leak in 2015 revealed several of Mr Sharif's children had links to offshore companies, which were allegedly used to channel funds and buy foreign assets.

That moment provided Imran Khan with his big chance - and he seized it.

His campaign against the Sharifs saw him threaten to blockade the capital with his supporters. Nawaz Sharif was ousted from the office of prime minister in 2017 and is now behind bars, sentenced to 10 years in prison by an anti-corruption court. The Sharifs maintain the charges are politically motivated.

Imran Khan scents victory in Pakistan vote

With his main rival down but not out, Imran Khan redoubled his efforts to woo politicians with dependable vote banks to his camp. Critics say many of the so-called "electables" were coerced into defecting, charges the military and PTI deny.

Mr Khan rejects persistent claims that the powerful military has manipulated the poll in support of his campaign.

He told the BBC in May: "The current military chief, Gen Bajwa, is probably the most pro-democratic man we have ever seen."

How he might get on with the military in the longer term if he makes it to power remains an open question.

If he really wants to tackle some of Pakistan's root problems, he may find himself on a collision course with the establishment, as previous governments have discovered.

Pakistan election: Imran Khan leads in early counting - BBC News

July 26, 2018

Pakistan election: Imran Khan leads in early counting

Five things to know about Imran Khan
Early results from Pakistan's election suggest ex-cricket star Imran Khan is on course to become prime minister.

With nearly half the votes counted from Wednesday's parliamentary election, Mr Khan's PTI party is in the lead.

It is expected to fall short of an overall majority and to seek coalition partners. Officials deny claims of vote rigging made by Mr Khan's rivals.

Campaigning has been marred by violence. On voting day a bomb killed 31 people at a polling station.

Mr Khan, the charismatic aristocrat who captained Pakistan to a World Cup victory in 1992, has long shed his celebrity playboy image and has recently faced accusations that his election challenge is benefiting from military interference in the nuclear-armed republic.

The cricket hero who could be Pakistan's next PM
Why Pakistan's election matters
With votes counted in 49% of stations, Mr Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party was leading in 119 of the 272 National Assembly constituencies being contested, Pakistan's Dawn Newspaper reported, citing election commission figures.

A total of 137 seats is required for a majority.

Newspapers featuring Mr Khan read "victory" and "man of the match"
This election will mark only the second time that a civilian government has handed power to another after serving a full term in Pakistan.

But the party of disgraced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has rejected the results, as have a host of smaller parties, all alleging vote-rigging and manipulation.

"The way the people's mandate has blatantly been insulted, it is intolerable," Shehbaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and brother of the former prime minister.

Mr Khan, who first entered politics in 1996 but struggled for years on the political sidelines, now styles himself as a pious, populist, anti-poverty reformer.

The 65-year-old campaigned on a message of anti-corruption and vowed to take on Pakistan's entrenched political dynasties. But his views on Islamist militancy will be scrutinised if he becomes prime minister - he has criticised some of the Taliban's violence but last year his party's government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province gave $3m (£2.3m) to the notorious Haqqania madrassa, headed by a man known as the "father of the Taliban".

On Thursday, Dawn said the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) had raised questions over the voting process. "The commission received complaints that in many areas women were not allowed to vote," the newspaper reported.

The party of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the historically liberal PPP, is widely expected to come third.

It is now fronted by Ms Bhutto's son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a 29-year-old who became party chairman when he was still a student at Oxford University.

The turnout has been estimated at between 50% and 55% out of 106 million registered voters, AFP reports.

What will be the next prime minister's main challenges?
Before the election Mr Khan told the BBC that if he were to be elected, his initial focus would be on the economy. Pakistan's currency, the rupee, has declined by 20%. Inflation is on the rise and the trade deficit widening.

Exports such as textiles have taken a hit from cheaper products by regional competitors, including China. Analysts say the new government may need to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the country's second bailout since 2013.

The BBC's Secunder Kermani in Islamabad says tough decisions that could entail curbs on spending will be easier in a government Mr Khan is able to dominate.

However, if his rivals continue to reject the results, and even potentially launch the kind of street protests Mr Khan did while in opposition, the country could face political instability.

Why does this election matter?
Pakistan has a population of nearly 200 million, and is a nuclear-armed rival to India, a key developing economy and one of the world's largest Muslim-majority nations.

The country has been ruled on and off by the military during its 71-year history, so this election is significant because it is considered the country's second consecutive democratic transition.

BBC news programme sorry for Imran Khan mix-up
Viewpoint: Pakistan's dirtiest election in years
Fears of 'creeping coup' in Pakistan
The election has been seen as a contest between Mr Khan's PTI party and Mr Sharif's PML-N.

Mr Sharif, who won the last election, has been jailed for corruption after a scandal stemming from the Panama Papers leak.

Are the elections clean?
Both the run-up to the vote, and the vote count itself, have been highly controversial.

Ahead of the elections, the PML-N complained of a targeted crackdown by the security establishment, with the alleged help of the courts, in favour of the PTI party. The Pakistani military denied interfering in politics.

Independent media, meanwhile, say there have been blatant attempts to muzzle them, while the human rights commission has said there are "ample grounds" to question the legitimacy of the polls.

Who are the 'angels' and the 'electables'?
Nawaz Sharif: Pakistan's three-time PM
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari: Heir to a political dynasty
After the polls closed on Wednesday, several political groups alleged that vote rigging was taking place in polling stations - something denied by election officials.

Representatives from several parties said that their polling agents were expelled from polling stations during vote count and were denied certified copies of results - breaching election procedures.

Analysts have also highlighted unusual delays in the announcement of unofficial results in dozens of constituencies, especially in the crucial province of Punjab which has been a stronghold of PML-N.

Election officials say delays in releasing the results are simply down to failures in the electronic reporting system and that votes are now being counted manually.

Wednesday's attack in Quetta has been claimed by the Islamic State group
Who is Imran Khan?
Previously an international cricket star who led Pakistan to a World Cup victory in 1992
Educated at the University of Oxford
Attracted media attention for his playboy lifestyle and three marriages
Launched his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in 1996 but spent years on the political sidelines
Has campaigned against corruption and dynastic politics in Pakistan
Faces accusations - which he denies - that his party is benefiting from alleged meddling by the military