Uncertainty surrounds Pakistan’s election preparations
Pakistan’s political parties have intensified their campaigns ahead of next month’s elections, but questions remain over whether the military will allow a free and fair vote.
The military has staged several coups and has been accused of interfering in politics ever since the country gained independence in 1947.
The lead-up to the February 8 vote has been clouded by the imprisonment of former prime minister Imran Khan, who has accused the military of orchestrating his removal and manufacturing charges against him.
In 2018, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, led by the former cricket star, secured a majority and formed a government.
However, Mr Khan was removed as prime minister in 2022 after a no-confidence vote and subsequently imprisoned for corruption.
His government was replaced by a coalition of the PTI’s rivals, led by Shehbaz Sharif, head of the Pakistan Muslim League.
Mr Khan, currently serving a sentence at Adiala Jail, said yesterday that he is being punished after he exposed a purported conspiracy against his government by former army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa.
His party was barred from using the cricket bat as its electoral symbol and says its members have been harassed and arrested.
“PTI workers were arrested and their electoral symbol, a bat, was snatched from them,” central PTI leader Shaukat Yousafzai told The National.
“This is clearly a victimisation of PTI.”
Mr Yousafzai accused the PTI’s major rival, the PML-N, of soliciting the support of the establishment.
The PML-N appears to be experiencing a resurgence since its leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan last year, after four years of self-imposed exile.
He has since been granted bail in various corruption cases that had prompted him to leave the country.
“The way Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan and his exoneration in various cases show that there is a deal between PML-N and establishment,” Mr Yousafzai said.
Neither Mr Sharif nor Mr Khan are officially eligible to run for a seat in parliament due to the cases against them, but their treatment by the courts has prompted accusations that the establishment favours Mr Sharif’s PML-N.
The PML-N denies these accusations and accuses the PTI of rigging the vote in 2018.
“Only PTI is levelling this allegation [that the establishment backs PML-N], but this is not true,” PML-N secretary general Ahsan Iqbal told The National.