Official

• The country’s popular former leader, Imran Khan, has been sentenced three separate times in recent weeks to lengthy jail terms.
• Read more:
  Pakistan election: the military has long meddled in the country's politics – this year will be no different

Khan’s downfall

• Khan, a former cricket star, led the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to victory in the 2018 elections.
• But he lost the support of the military and was ousted in April 2022 through a no confidence vote in the National Assembly.

ten years in prison for breaching the Official Secrets Act
14 years in prison for failing to disclose gifts received from foreign leaders, selling them and then not disclosing the amounts earned
seven years in prison for being in an un-Islamic marriage.

• The electoral commission made things even more difficult by blocking the party’s use of the cricket bat symbol to identify its candidates.
• In a country with low levels of literacy, many people rely on these symbols when they cast their ballots.

The return of an exiled former leader

• Sharif owes his initial entry into politics to the military regime led by General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s.
• His relationship with the military since the 1990s, however, has vacillated between being cordial and antagonistic.
• In fact, Sharif blamed former military and spy chiefs for orchestrating his ouster from power in 2017 when he was convicted of corruption.
• As such, Pakistan appears to be heading for a coalition government, which will have to address several challenges facing the country.

A struggling economy and spiralling inflation

• Pakistan’s GDP growth rate has fallen from 5.8% in 2021 to about 0.3% in 2023.
• Rates increased from 8.9% in 2021 to a whopping 29.7% in December 2023.
• Meanwhile, the rate of people living in poverty in Pakistan has climbed to nearly 40%, more than five percentage points higher than fiscal year 2022.
• A small minority of people in private gatherings are even questioning the legitimacy of the idea of Pakistan.

Samina Yasmeen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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