Pakistan holds polls, army's shadow looms

With a hung verdict predicted, the security forces are likely to shape the government

In the throes of a serious political, economic and security crisis, Pakistan is holding its delayed federal and provincial elections today. It is a familiar script with the army exercising control over the process. The principal political actors remain unchanged - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) - but the status of the first two has radically changed since the 2018 elections.

Imran Khan, the blue-eyed boy of the army in 2018 having connived with the latter's strong-arm tactics against Nawaz Sharif, finds himself hoisted with his own petard. Due to his strident anti-army stance following his ouster from office and past acrimony with the army chief Asim Munir, he is now the army's bête noir.

But he continues to be popular. A Gallup Pakistan survey released last month showed that he had lost only three percentage points from his popularity rating of 60% in June 2023. This has forced the army to use its familiar underhand means to tilt the electoral field against him. Incarcerated for months now, Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi, and deputy Shah Mahmood Qureshi, have been handed down varying prison sentences of up to 14 years on flimsy charges in four cases, three in the last few days, following dubious judicial proceedings. This debars him from contesting the elections. Several other cases are pending against him. Even by Pakistan's standards, this is an overkill.