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zvaigzdelasas · 3 months

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Preliminary results from Thursday’s election in Pakistan seem to show that independent candidates affiliated with Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party have a chance of securing a plurality of legislative seats despite myriad irregularities, which continued through polling day, designed to hobble such an outcome.

The PTI already had its famed cricket-bat logo banned, and a nationwide suspension of cellphone networks on Thursday hindered party officials from informing supporters of their preferred independent candidate for each constituency. (The government claimed the blackout was for security reasons despite such measures being deemed illegal by Pakistan’s High Court.) In addition, exit polls were banned and the PTI complained that their agents were barred from monitoring polling stations. “The amount of rigging going on is beyond ridiculous,” Zulfi Bukhari, a former Minister of State under Khan, tells TIME.

Still, when results finally started trickling in—over 10 hours later than customary, which in itself observers say is highly suspicious—the PTI was neck and neck with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, with the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of assassinated ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in third place.

Sharif is the preferred candidate of Pakistan’s powerful military, which, despite backing his ouster thrice in the past, recently allowed the 74-year-old back from exile in the U.K., quashed his corruption conviction, and repealed his lifetime ban from politics. Sharif’s speedy rehabilitation stood in stark contrast to the generals’ Khan-and-PTI purge.[...]

Khan, 71, remains in prison and was unable to stand as a lawmaker himself. [...]

Still, the strength of PTI’s showing is a bloody nose for Pakistan’s military, which previously backed Khan before his 2018 election victory. However, the generals fell out spectacularly with the former national cricket captain and engineered his ouster in an April 2022 no-confidence vote. Since then, Khan has survived an assassination attempt and weathered a tsunami of over 180 legal challenges. In recent weeks alone, he received prison sentences totaling 31 years for corruption, leaking state secrets, and having an “un-Islamic” marriage.

Yet his popularity remained strong leading up to the vote, especially among young Pakistanis, with voters aged 18-35 comprising 45% of the nearly 130 million-strong electorate. “It's very clear that the military was nervous and then to see PTI exceed expectations is absolutely a big blow,” says Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center.[...]

On May 9, PTI supporters ransacked military premises in response to an earlier, fleeting arrest of Khan. He may remain behind bars, but Thursday’s election shows the sporting icon is far from done as a political force.

9 Feb 24

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mariacallous · 2 months

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MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan—Mohsin Dawar’s campaign for re-election to Pakistan’s parliament was almost cut short before it began in early January when his convoy was ambushed in a village just a few minutes’ drive from his home in Miran Shah in Pakistan’s North Waziristan district, near the lawless borderlands with Afghanistan. As his car came under attack from militants armed with automatic weapons, sniper rifles, and rocket-propelled grenades, he and his team were lured into a compound by residents who promised them safety.

It was a trap. Once the gates closed behind Dawar, the attack intensified. For almost an hour, he said, they were pinned down. Police and Pakistan Army backup finally arrived but not before two of Dawar’s team had been shot and injured. The vehicle took more than 80 bullets, and the windows show just how accurate the attackers’ aim was: Either one of the shots to the windshield or passenger window would have struck and likely killed him if he hadn’t been protected by bulletproof glass.

The Jan. 3 attack on a popular, outspoken, liberal leader in one of the most vulnerable regions of a country fighting a growing insurgency by extremist militants hardly registered in Pakistan, where most believe the military attempted—and failed—to manipulate the Feb. 8 election in an effort to install Nawaz Sharif as prime minister for a fourth time and where media operate under tight government control.

The election wasn’t quite the foregone conclusion that had been expected, with candidates aligned with the jailed cricket star-turned-populist leader Imran Khan winning more votes than each of the major parties—the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party—forcing them into a coalition to get the majority needed to form a government. PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif nominated his brother, Shehbaz Sharif, to become prime minister and his daughter Maryam Nawaz as chief minister of Punjab province, ensuring the dynastic line continues.

Candidates across the country, not only those loyal to Khan, alleged that the results had been rigged against them and in favor of military-backed candidates. Two days after the election, with his seat still undeclared amid growing concerns nationwide about vote rigging, Dawar and about a dozen of his supporters were injured when security forces opened fire on them as they gathered outside the official counting room.

At least three people died of their injuries; What Dawar had believed was an unassailable lead, according to polling by his secular National Democratic Movement party, had disappeared. In the count that was listed as final by Pakistan’s Election Commission, the seat went to Misbah Uddin of the Taliban-aligned Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam-Fazl party. Dawar is still recovering from a serious leg wound.

Dawar’s hometown is, once again, the battleground of what he calls “Project Taliban”—a war against the Pakistani state.

The Taliban’s transnational ambitions are threatening security beyond the borders of Afghanistan, and nowhere is this more evident than in Pakistan’s northwest, where the militant presence has been growing since the terrorist-led group came back to power in August 2021. Attacks on civilians, soldiers, and police have soared. The region bristles with checkpoints and hilltop outposts and is heavily patrolled on the ground and in the air by the Pakistan Army and armed border police. That’s during daylight hours, Dawar told Foreign Policy. Once night falls, it’s a different story.

“The Army checkposts you will only see during the daytime. Before sunset, they go to their barracks, and the people of Waziristan are at the disposal of the militants. Everyone has to secure himself or herself for their own protection,” he said. “It is militarized, and I believe it is a continuation of a proxy war that was started long ago. ‘Project Taliban’ is still continuing.”

The roots of militancy and terrorism in Waziristan go back to colonial times, when the mostly Pashtun people here were characterized as fearless fighters and pressed into service for the British. The stereotype stuck; the region became a center of recruitment and training for young men to fight the Soviets after Moscow’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.

After the United States led an invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks, leaders of the Taliban and al Qaeda moved over the border and for the following 20 years enjoyed the protection of the Pakistani military’s intelligence wing, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

The ISI wanted a tame Taliban-led Afghanistan to thwart the ambitions of archrival India to become the dominant regional power. The Taliban had different ideas. The group’s return to power has inspired affiliated and like-minded groups worldwide, as the extremist regime provides safe haven for dozens of militant groups, according to the U.N. Security Council. They now openly use Afghanistan as a base to train fighters seeking to overthrow governments from China and Tajikistan to Iran and Israel. Among them is Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which, Afrasiab Khattak, a former Pakistani lawmaker and now a political analyst, said, is “just Taliban, there is no difference.”

Earlier this month, the Taliban reiterated the group’s stance on the international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan when the acting foreign minister, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, said the government doesn’t recognize the Durand Line that has delineated the two countries since 1893. The line runs through the tribal regions, dividing ethnic Pashtun and Baloch tribespeople. Recent bilateral tensions have often focused on the border, with tit-for-tat closures impacting cross-border trade.

In comments that Pakistan’s foreign ministry later called “fanciful” and “self-serving”—and which underlined the simmering hostility between Pakistan and the Taliban it helped put in power—Stanikzai said: “We have never recognized Durand and will never recognize it; today half of Afghanistan is separated and is on the other side of the Durand Line. Durand is the line which was drawn by the English on the heart of Afghans.”

The Security Council said in 2022 that the TTP had up to 5,500 fighters in Afghanistan. That number has likely risen, Dawar said, as neither country, mired in economic mismanagement and crisis, can offer its youthful population an alternative livelihood. Victory brought strength, Dawar said, and the Taliban “can attract the youth because money and power is what attracts youth the most.”

The simmering conflict threatens to return Pakistan’s northwest to the wasteland of less than decade ago, when the TTP controlled the region: Dissenters were routinely killed. Terrorists turned the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), now part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after an administrative merger in 2018, into a death zone. Millions of people were displaced as those who could leave fled to peace and safety.

Those who stayed lived in fear and poverty until the Army finally took action in 2016 and ended the TTP’s 10-year reign by simply killing them, often in attacks that also killed civilians, or pushing them over the porous border into Afghanistan, where they joined Taliban forces fighting the U.S.-supported republic until it collapsed in 2021.

The TTP wants an independent state in these border regions. It broke a cease-fire with the government in November 2022 and has demanded that the merger of the FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa be reversed. Attacks on the military and police have escalated alarmingly, presenting what a senior government official, who spoke anonymously, called “not only an existential threat to the state but also to the common man”—a recognition that what Dawar calls “Project Taliban” not only threatens to engulf the northwest but, if not contained, poses a potential threat to a fragile and barely stable state.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar disagreed, telling reporters before the Feb. 8 vote that the military had the upper hand in the region, by virtue of numbers alone. “I don’t see that they pose an existential threat to the state of Pakistan,” he said, while nevertheless conceding it was a “big challenge” that could take years to dislodge.

He could be right. After the failure of peace talks, ironically brokered by the Taliban’s acting interior minister, U.N.-listed terrorist Sirajuddin Haqqani, Pakistan stepped up pressure on the TTP. Asfandyar Mir, an expert on South Asian political and security issues, said this appeared to have made a “marginal” difference.

“For instance, we haven’t seen a complex or suicide bombing attack by the TTP or one of its fronts for a couple of months now,” he said. “In that sense, it appears the Taliban is sensitive to pressure,” though “smaller-scale attacks and the erosion of Pakistani state authority in parts of the northwest continue.” Things could change, he said, once a new government is installed and, perhaps, brings some stability to the political landscape.

For the people of Waziristan, struggling to survive unemployment, a lack of development, and government neglect of basic services such as roads, electricity, clean water, and education—coupled with a downturn in vital cross-border trade with Afghanistan—priorities have again switched to peace. “The local people have learned through their own bitter experience of devastating war” what a Taliban resurgence means, said Khattak, the political analyst. The security establishment is playing a dangerous game, indulging the TTP so that “local people become so desperate they want the military to come in and help them,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands of people have marched through the streets and bazaars of North and South Waziristan over the past year, demanding action against terrorism and an end to state violence. Yet it continues. “No one is safe. Everyone is a target,” said a man in his 30s as he rolled off a list of potential victims: politicians, business people, teachers, doctors, journalists, civic activists, women’s rights advocates, anyone deemed “un-Islamic.” Even barbers are not immune from extremists who ban men from shaving: The day before the Jan. 3 attack on Dawar’s convoy, the bodies of six young hairdressers were found in the nearby town of Mir Ali.

Another local resident pointed to a “Taliban checkpoint” on the road between Miran Shah and the bustling town of Bannu. The long-haired, kohl-eyed, gun-toting youths in sequined caps stand outside their roadside hut in the shadow of an Army post on the hill above. Around the clock, the resident said, they randomly stop vehicles to shake down the drivers. “It’s just for money,” he said. “Money and power.”

But it’s killing, too, “on a daily basis,” said a government worker who left Miran Shah with his family at the height of the TTP terror and visited in early February from Peshawar so he and his wife could vote for Dawar. The aim, he said, is “to create an atmosphere of fear so that people leave and what is here is theirs.”

Dawar said the turning of the Taliban tables on Pakistan “was predictable.” The Taliban “are now a threat to Central Asia. They are now a threat to Iran, to Pakistan, and to even China. All of them thought we will control the Taliban after the takeover. The problem is it didn’t happen,” he said.

In 2011, then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Pakistan’s leaders that they couldn’t keep “snakes,” as she called the Taliban, in their own backyard and “expect them only to bite your neighbors.”

“There used to be a time when people were sent from here to Afghanistan. Now they are coming around, they are biting,” Dawar said.

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 10 months

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By: PTI

Published: Jun 18, 2023

LAHORE: Succumbing to the demands of a radical Islamist party, the Pakistan government has agreed to try blasphemy suspects under terrorism charges in addition to the other sections of the country's penal code. The Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) ended its 25-day-long march protest at Sarai Alamgir, Gujrat district, some 200 km from Lahore, on Saturday after signing a pact with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led federal government. Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said the government has accepted "all legitimate" demands of the TLP, especially on blasphemy laws. In a 12-point agreement signed on Saturday with the TLP, the federal government agreed to book those accused of committing blasphemy and charged with Section 295-C (use of derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet) of Pakistan Penal Code under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997, too. "Besides, speedy trials of the blasphemy accused will be ensured. For the first time, a Counter Blasphemy Wing (CBW) will be established under the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)," Sanaullah said, adding the government would ensure steps to block blasphemous content on social media. The radical Islamic group gained political capital as the federal government agreed to issue a letter declaring that the TLP was not a terrorist organisation, the Dawn newspaper reported. The government also conceded to lift the ban on the coverage of TLP on broadcast and social media while agreeing to withdraw all political cases filed against TLP workers and leaders. Sanaullah said the TLP leaders whose names have been taken off the Fourth Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, will have the freedom of movement, and the federal government will issue directives to provincial governments for it. According to Amnesty International, Pakistan's blasphemy laws are often used against religious minorities and others who are the target of false accusations. The addition of terrorism charges will make the blasphemy suspects more vulnerable.

https://theprint.in/opinion/security-code/pakistan-is-being-run-by-its-very-own-ayatollahs-but-this-time-jihadists-arent-to-blame/1635385/

Even if it doesn’t call them by their name, Pakistan is being quietly run by its own Ayatollahs, who negotiate with the State on behalf of a higher sovereign. They are laying the foundations for turning the country into a Shari’a-run Islamic State, more surely than jihadists who have escalated violent operations across Pakistan.

Pakistan is becoming the new Iran.

#Pakistan #blasphemy #blasphemy laws #islam #radical islam #prophet muhammad #muhammad #religion #theocracy #islamic regime #islamic republic of pakistan #sharia #shari'a #islamic state #religion is a mental illness

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info24sevennews-blog · 1 day

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#ImranKhan #JihadFactory #PakistanPolitics #ShehbazSharif

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swamyworld · 4 days

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Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif to regain PML-N chairmanship

Nawaz Sharif | Image Credit: PTI Three-time former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif is set to take the helm of the ruling PML-N next month to guide the party amid infighting, seven years after he stepped down after being disqualified by the Supreme Court. A senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader said Sharif, 74, would be elected as the ruling party president at a party leadership…

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healthandwealthonline · 23 days

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Pakistan Election Results 2024 Highlights: Nawaz Sharif seeks a coalition govt after trailing jailed rival Imran Khan | Mint - Mint

Pakistan Election Results 2024 Highlights: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has won National and Provincial Assembly seats in Lahore, as reported by ARY News on Friday, citing the Election Commission of Pakistan.Voting concluded in Pakistan for parliamentary elections on Thursday at 5 pm amidst escalating militant attacks and allegations of…

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abcexpresspk · 26 days

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PM Shehbaz to embark on two-day visit to Saudi Arabia tomorrow

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is presiding a meeting in Islamabad on April 3, 2024. —Facebook/ Mian Shehbaz Sharif - PM Shehbaz to hold discussion with MbS on various projects. - He will renew invitation to Saudi crown prince visit Pakistan. - Premier will meet Nawaz Sharif before leaving for KSA.ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will depart on a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia Saturday night, where he will perform Umrah and call on his Saudi Arabian counterpart during his stay in Jeddah. The News reported citing sources.The sources said that during the important meeting with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, PM Shehbaz would hold discussion on various projects. The premier would also renew his invitation to MbS to visit Pakistan. During his stay, multiple development projects would be finalized, whereas bilateral cooperation in several sectors including agriculture continues between the two countries, said the sources. They said Saudi Arabia was expected to invest $1 billion on the Reko Diq project as well. The schedule for PM Shehbaz's visit along with few federal ministers and top public officers would be finalized on Friday (today), said the sources. Prior to his visit, the premier would hold consultation with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, they added.This would be PM Shehbaz's maiden visit to the kingdom since assuming the office in March. Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Pakistan Nawaf bin Saeed Al-Maliki is heading back to his country to receive the PM. #Shehbaz #embark #twoday #visit #Saudi #Arabia #tomorrow More Detail Source at Click Here PM Shehbaz to embark on two-day visit to Saudi Arabia tomorrow Read the full article

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dgpr-punjab-newsroom · 1 month

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With compliments from, The Directorate General Public Relations,

Government of the Punjab, Lahore Ph. 99201390.

No. 591/Wasim Butt/Mujahid

Handout (A)

PLAN TO MAKE SOLID WASTE A ‘SOURCE’ ON CARD, SAYS MINISTER

Lahore, March 31:

Local Government Minister Punjab Zeeshan Rafique has said that the Chief Minister's “Suthra Punjab Program” will be carried forward in a phased manner. After outsourcing the sanitation system of both villages and cities we will in the next step make the solid waste our ‘source’ by making it usable. Punjab government is going to introduce a model of recycling the bulk of waste by ensuring its segregation.

He was addressing a press conference regarding “Suthra Punjab Program” at DGPR, here today. He said that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif announced the biggest cleaning program in the history of the province soon after taking oath of her office. “Despite holy month of Ramadan, the government machinery honestly tried to implement the Chief Minister's vision. This program was just a start and the first phase of a comprehensive sanitation plan”, he told. The Local Government Minister said that the “Suthra Punjab Program” was quite successful, but we will learn lessons from the challenges faced during the cleaning campaign and move forward. “Punjab's population of more than 127 million leaves 57,500 tons of waste every day. We are able to dispose of only eighteen thousand 438 tons of garbage. This means that the load of forty-nine thousand tons of waste is increasing every day”, he pointed out.

Moreover, the minister told the media that nne lakh 30 thousand tons of waste was disposed of in Lahore during the last 30 days. Zeeshan Rafique resolved that with the support of political determination, media and people, we will be successful, God willing. “At present, 229 municipal institutions of Punjab are providing services to 19.5 million people annually, while eight waste management companies are reaching out to about 26 million people. Time has come for all stakeholders to step forward to make Punjab a clean province and Pakistan a beautiful country”, he said. Mr. Rafique while pointing out that municipal services fees are charged worldwide stressed that outsourcing cleaning services will help in achieving cleaning goals.

He said that more than garbage collection, its safe dumping and treatment of sewage water is the real challenge. We are going to introduce modern and world class technology for proper dumping. Minister of Local Government said that segregation of waste is necessary before dumping it and for this purpose the location of 66 transfer stations has been identified in Punjab. On a question, Zeeshan Rafique said that Muslim League-N believes in conducting local body elections. Punjab government is working in this regard. During the press conference, he also extended Easter greetings to the Christian community, particularly Christian staff of the Local Government Department.

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xtruss · 1 month

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Pakistan’s Corrupt To Their Cores Army Generals Look Increasingly Desperate! A Heavily Fraudulent Election May Not Keep Imran Khan’s Fans At Bay

— March 14th 2024 | The Economist

Illustration of a Ballot Being Shredded. Image Credit: lan Truong

Thief, Looter, Traitor, International Money Launderer Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League Party (PML-N) is Back in Power with the Help of Heavily Rigged Elections by the Pakistan’s Corrupt To Their Cores Army Generals, ISI, Politicians and Judges. Following elections last month, the thrice former prime minister’s younger brother, Shehbaz, has been installed in the ruling post. His Daughter, Lowlife, Looter, Thief, Corrupt Maryam Safdar, is the New Chief Minister of Populous Punjab in result of Stolen Mandate of Imran Khan’s Party PTI. So why is Mr Sharif so glum? The 74-year-old “Lion of Punjab 😂😂😂” has said little publicly since the vote. Bunkered down in his mansion outside Lahore, he is said to be depressed.

He has reason to be. The PML-N’s success is much less than Mr Sharif was promised when he returned home last year. He had spent four years in exile in London because Pakistan’s Generals—Stage Managers of its Democracy—were against him. They rigged an election in 2018 in favour of his main rival, Imran Khan. But then they fell out with Mr Khan and reverted to the lion. A former cricketing god, Mr Khan is Now in Jail on Graft Charges. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has been dismantled. PML-N was therefore expected to sweep the election and Mr Sharif to become prime minister for a fourth time. Instead, something unprecedented happened.

Despite the Army’s Myriad Ploys to prevent Pakistanis voting for Mr Khan, it seems most did so. Standing as independents, candidates linked to his party swept the country. Early counting put them on track for Two-Thirds of Punjab’s seats and an overall majority. At which point the Army Intervened to a degree that might make a Tin-Pot Tyrant Blush.

Army agents were allegedly sent into counting stations with alternative tallies. Salman Akram Raja, a Supreme Court Lawyer running as a De Facto PTI Candidate in Lahore, had been informed that he had won by 95,000 votes. And then—whoops—that he had lost to the PML-N Candidate by 13,500. Mr Sharif’s Party would otherwise have faced oblivion. As it is, it won only 75 of 264 seats. It cobbled together a majority by striking a deal with the Pakistan Peoples Party, which is run by another Fading Dynasty, the Bhuttos.

This might seem like Pakistani business as usual. The country has been ruled by the army, directly or at varying degrees of remove, throughout its history. In a cycle that Mr Sharif has been through several times, the Corrupt Generals put a Biddable Civilian in Power then, after he or she dares to act independently, switch to a different proxy or Army Rule. Thereby Pakistan has had Four Army Dictators and None of its 20 Civilian Prime Ministers has completed a Five-Year term. This helps explain why it is so badly governed. Having little prospect of a full term, Pakistan’s civilian regimes abjure long-term decision-making in favour of populist giveaways and graft. As recently as 2006, Pakistanis were better-off than Indians; now the average income in India is 60% higher than that in Pakistan.

A big question arising from this latest turn of the wheel is whether the army can maintain control. There are two reasons to think it could struggle. The first is Mr Khan. Perhaps unwittingly, given his erstwhile compliance with the army, he has channelled Pakistanis’ long-standing despond into anger at the military establishment. This has put Pakistani Politics on New Terrain. Had the Boak Bollocks Corrupt Army Chief, General Asim Munir, responded to the vote count by calling a state of emergency, as his predecessors might have, he would have risked an uprising. “There is This Sense That the Gravy Train Needs to Stop,” says Mr Raja, an Old Acquaintance of Banyan. “We Can’t Be Forever Governed by Two Families in Cahoots with the Powers That Be.”

The second factor endangering the status quo is a protracted economic crisis. The inflationary shocks experienced in many countries have in Pakistan combined with the effects of long-standing malgovernance to deliver chronic inflation, joblessness and balance-of-payment problems. Mr Khan’s ousting in 2022 now appears well timed for him. Mr Sharif’s decision to let Shehbaz (Both Brothers Certified Corrupt to Their Cores) lead an 16-month-long replacement government instead of calling early elections looks like a major blunder. It has hung the crisis around his party’s neck. With Pakistan’s 24th IMF Bail-Out set to expire this month, and a bigger loan urgently required, the new government will need to take measures that will make it even more unpopular than it is. Its prospects—and Mr Sharif’s hopes of rebuilding his party—appear dire.

The same could be true for the army-run establishment that Mr Sharif has unhappily rejoined. It may have got away with its latest election heist. But in the process Mr Khan’s supporters have made the Corrupt Army, ISI, Politicians and Judges Look Desperate and Vulnerable. ■

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jayprakashraj · 2 months

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Pakistan Elections News: Rawalpindi Commissioner Resigns, Makes Big Allegation On Election Commission | Raj Express

Who will be Pakistan's new Prime Minister? That's the burning question. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is poised to form the government, with reports suggesting that Shehbaz Sharif, not Nawaz Sharif, may take the oath of Prime Minister.

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#Pakistan Elections #Youtube

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mariacallous · 2 months

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The results of Pakistan’s general elections on Feb. 8 reflected widespread dissatisfaction with the country’s civil and military establishment, but they seem to have brought about the opposite of what many voters wanted. Independent candidates affiliated with former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party—barred from running under its banner—won more seats in parliament than any major party, but not enough for a majority. Parliamentary arithmetic necessitates a coalition, and Khan, who is in prison on corruption charges, refuses to negotiate with his rivals.

Pakistan’s next government will instead be formed by a coalition of legacy parties, including the center-right Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and the center-left Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), led by former President Asif Ali Zardari and his son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. On Feb. 8, Pakistan’s entrenched political order—in which parties vie for votes as well as the powerful military’s favor—was jolted but did not crumble. Although PTI’s surprising performance damaged the military’s reputation and mystique, the military’s ability to influence the course of events remains intact.

The latest episode in Pakistan’s game of thrones comes amid a serious economic crisis as well as security threats from the resurgent Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups. Political polarization makes it difficult to address Pakistan’s swelling debt and deficit. With a GDP of $340 billion, Pakistan must repay nearly $78 billion in external debt before 2026. Imposing taxes on key sectors of the economy—agriculture, real estate, retail—is difficult without political consensus. And amid the uncertainty, various loss-making state-owned enterprises, from Pakistan International Airlines to the country’s power distribution companies, which collectively cost the government around $1.7 billion annually, cannot be privatized.

Pakistan also needs a comprehensive strategy to deal with jihadi groups, which are now responsible for terrorist attacks inside the country but were once encouraged or tolerated as part of unconventional warfare against India and a way to secure influence in Afghanistan. Populist narratives blaming India, Israel, and the United States for holding back Pakistan’s progress hinder action against extremists, who portray themselves as Islamist heroes. Meanwhile, peace with India, relations with the West, and ties to economic benefactors in the Arab world are now held hostage to Pakistan’s internal divisions: Those holding office at any given time are often accused by their opponents of selling out Pakistan’s interests.

If there was ever a time for Pakistan’s squabbling politicians to form a government of national unity, it would be now. Given the fragmented election results and allegations of vote-rigging, a stable cross-party government could pave the way for the military’s withdrawal from politics. It could also help Pakistan transition away from its long-standing tradition of one major politician or another being in jail—such as Khan—while their supporters are harassed. Parliamentary debates on alternative policy ideas could replace the current shouting matches between rival leaders’ supporters about who is more corrupt.

But rather than inspiring unity, the coalition government that is taking shape will immediately face opposition from Khan’s supporters. As things stand, it seems unlikely that Pakistan’s divisions will end anytime soon. The results of last week’s elections confirmed voters’ weariness with the political elite and dynastic politics, as well as with the meddling—both overt and covert—by the country’s generals. Widespread dissatisfaction with the economy and the absence of opportunities for Pakistan’s burgeoning young population have given rise to populist politics that will not lead to reconciliation.

Khan, the cricket star-turned-quintessential populist leader, dismisses the idea of a negotiated settlement with his political opponents. He has built a powerful narrative of victimhood that blames Pakistan’s political elites and foreign conspiracies for the country’s problems. His grandiloquence may not offer realistic solutions, but it does create an outlet for powerless people to vent their rage and frustration. Khan seems to believe that a revolution could give him greater power than embracing the idea of a new national pact. Instead of using PTI’s electoral success to talk to the other major parties, Khan has offered an alliance proposal to two minor religious parties, although one of them has already refused the partnership.

After his initial arrest in May 2023, the former leader encouraged attacks against military installations, according to an aide; he could now encourage violent protests against alleged election rigging in another attempt to ignite a street revolution. But the May 9 attacks paved the way for a harsher crackdown on PTI than if there had not been violent turmoil. Hundreds of party activists were arrested while thousands faced intimidation from security services. It would be irresponsible of Khan to put his supporters’ lives and freedom at risk.

Ironically, Khan came to power in 2018 with the help of Pakistan’s military and security services as a crusader against corrupt civilian politicians. The generals built up Khan as an alternative to these politicians, many of whom had quarreled with the military at some point in the past. But Khan also ran afoul of the military as prime minister because he defied the generals’ wishes and mismanaged the economy; his populism harmed Pakistan’s precarious external relations. To remove Khan from office, the military turned to the same politicians it had sought to discredit.

After his ouster in a parliamentary no-confidence vote, Khan saw an opportunity to continue his anti-elite bombast, adding the country’s top generals to the list of villains from whom he would save Pakistan. His supporters lapped it up. The military has influenced the country’s politics for decades, but it now faces a unique challenge. Khan has poisoned even traditionally pro-army constituencies by arguing that the generals were acting at the behest of the United States—allegations that Washington denies—and against Pakistan’s interests. Military leaders have now been trying to get an entire nation to change direction away from Khan for nearly two years with little success.

The generals and their new civilian allies may have assumed that jailing Khan, bringing back Sharif from exile, and implementing repressive measures—such as barring PTI-affiliated candidates’ access to the media—would ensure the election result that they wanted. Instead, young PTI activists used social media to mobilize voters and upended the establishment’s plans.

Still, the reaction of voters to the Pakistani military’s highhandedness is unlikely to unleash a revolution. In the short term, the country will continue to have a weak civilian government willing to work closely with the military while Khan will remain in prison and his party will remain out of power. Any widespread political violence will only result in a clamor for the military to take over and restore order.

For years, Pakistan’s military has repeated the cycle of “elect, dismiss, disqualify, and arrest” for civilian politicians. But in the long term, the country’s leaders must collectively address the widespread frustration and polarization that has contributed the success of Khan’s populism. Although unlikely, Khan changing tack and accepting political compromise could also help ease Pakistan’s pain. In any case, the hostility toward the military’s political role among its former supporters makes it difficult for generals to act as if nothing has changed.

3 notes · View notes