On the first anniversary of the election on February 8 Saturday (today), the Pakistani Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) -LED government celebrates a year of “stability and economic recovery”, while the opposition, especially the Pakistani tehreek- e Insaf (PTI), observes it as the “largest voting theft day”.

On the one hand, members of the reigning coalition are called February 8 as a “day of progress and development” that says key economic indicators have improved, the country has moved after last year’s financial uncertainty and is now on a path to sustained growth.

The opposition parties, on the other hand, declared February 8 as ‘Black Day’, claiming that PTI’s mandate was stolen a year ago, a ‘non-elected’ government was installed by manipulating the results, and the public is quickly losing hope for because of the ongoing crash against the people.

Although Minister of Information Ataullah Tarar did not respond to SMS, where he sought the government’s version, Pakistan Peoples People’s (PPP) Punjab Governor Saleem Haider triggered a controversy by claiming that Tarar did not win the election against PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

“This is guaranteed that Tarar did not win elections,” he said, talking to a private media offering on the threshold for the election year. He added that he was not sure if Bilawal had won or lost the election last year, but he certainly knew Tarar had lost it.

The Governor did not choke words on rigging and said that candidates who won from his constituency in Attock, as well as the whole of Rawalpindi and many in Karachi won via Form 47 – which is prepared by voting results achieved from Form 45S. “The whole of Pakistan is on Form 47,” Haider said.

To a question if the mandate belonged to PTI, Haider said it was the choice of praise before he added that those who won could tell how they managed to win elections when he had lost the election from his constituency. He said that all those who manipulated last year’s elections must be taken to the task.

Meanwhile, PTI -Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Agram released a video message in which he said party’s founder Imran Khan and other leaders and workers faced the worst form of oppression since the alleged ‘regime shift’ operation, which intensified months before the general elections And still went on.

On February 8, he continued, PTI would observe a “black day”, raising strongly their vote against the alleged “mandate theft”. While announcing that PTI would hold a public rally in Swabi, Akram said the people would have protests in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan.

In response, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif at X that PTI held a demonstration against the rig in the province where it had won and said taxpayers money was spent on the party’s rally in Swabi. He threw Gauntlet down to PTI to hold rallies in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan.

Nevertheless, one year after the election, experts said Pakistan’s economy demonstrated a continued improvement in the first half of the financial year 2025, adding that it was based on stabilization achieved in FY2024, as GDP expanded by 2.5% after the previous year Contraction.

Despite the rigging’s accusations, the experts felt that inflation significantly fell to 7.2% from 28.8% a year ago, supported by relief of global prices, a stable exchange rate and targeted government policies.

Political reforms, monetary relief and fiscal consolidation strengthened the basis for sustainable economic momentum further, they said, adding that the current account balance issued a $ 1.21 billion profit in July-December FY2025.

Record high transfer flow and strong export benefit offset the rising import bill. In addition, the experts said foreign direct investments (FDI) increased by 20%, driven by investments in the power and oil sector.

They added that currency reserves were enough to cover two months of imports, supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) payments and international financial assistance. They also said rupee valued by 1.2% – a sign of favorable external development.

The external sector, the economic experts, saw a significant improvement in the transfer flow along with the elastic export benefit, which contributed to a significant improvement in the ongoing account balance.

In the first quarter of FY2025, they said, GDP growth was estimated at 0.9% compared to 2.3% in the same quarter of FY2024 on the back of 1.15% Growth in agriculture and 1.43% growth in service sectors . In the industrial sector, they continued, growth remained negative.

However, they said the contraction slowed down to -1.03% from -4.43% last year, signaling a gradual improvement. They said the industrial sector experienced a 1.7% contraction in FY2024 due to stabilization measures, tight monetary policy attitude, high inflation and an unstable exchange rate.

The large production (LSM) sustained growth of 1.0% in FY2024, they said, adding that the industrial sector in 1st quarter25, which was entered into 1.03%, showing improvement compared to a significant contraction of 4, 43% in the same period last year.

This recovery was largely attributed to growth in manufacture as well as electricity, gas and water supply. However, downward risks with mining and quarry, which fell by 6.49%, and the construction that contracted significantly by 14.91%.

During July-November of the FY2025, the LSM sector experienced a slight decrease of 1.25% compared to the 1.9% contraction registered in the same period last year. Transfers witnessed an impressive 32.8% growth to reach $ 17.8 billion during the H1 FY2025 compared to the same period in FY2024.

This significant increase was driven by several factors, including increased migration, exchange rate stability, and targeted government incentives. The FDI flow demonstrated a marked 20% improvement in Christmas DEC FY2025 and reached $ 1,329 billion, up from $ 1.11 billion last year.

Although the government attributes this turn to its economic policies, reduced interest rates and increased foreign investment, the opposition is still critical of the election process that brought the current administration to power.

PTI and its allies have rejected the government’s claims and argued that the election was manipulated and that the results do not reflect people’s will. The party has announced protests and events across the country to mark February 8 as “Poll Theft Day,” accusing the ruling coalition of taking advantage of an unreasonable election process.