Last day of campaigning for elections
PAKISTAN’S politicians hit the campaign trail for the last time yesterday, before a general election that observers say has left the nation of 240 million at its most discouraged in years.
With former prime minister Imran Khan in jail and his party barred from contesting as a bloc, the field is open for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to win the most seats and give a fourth term as premier to its founder, Nawaz Sharif.
Candidates loyal to Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party could still prove a decisive factor – as well as the Pakistan Peoples Party of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari – but a generally lacklustre campaign season as well as voter apathy suggest that tomorrow will see a low turnout.
“The political atmosphere ahead of Pakistan’s first general election since 2018 is equally as glum as the economic one,” said the polling agency Gallup. “Seven in 10 Pakistanis lack confidence in the honesty of their elections. While this ties previous highs, it nevertheless represents a significant regression in recent years.”
Candidates had to end canvassing last night, before polls open tomorrow for more than 120 million registered voters to take part in an election rights activists have called deeply flawed.
Looming large over the vote – despite being barred from taking part – is Khan, who was handed three lengthy prison sentences last week for treason, graft and a marriage that did not meet Islamic law requirements.
He faced a fresh trial which started yesterday, this time in an anti-terrorism court, over riots led by his supporters last year.
In a bid to sidestep a nationwide crackdown, Khan’s PTI redefined its campaigning with social media rallies and the use of AI technology.
The election comes against the backdrop of an economy in dire straits and a significant rise in militancy.
The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank, said there had been a “staggering” rise in militant attacks in the past year with an average of 54 a month – the most since 2015, when the army cracked down on militant groups.
On Monday, at least 10 officers were killed when militants attacked a police station near the Afghan border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Inflation is galloping at nearly 30%, the rupee has been in free fall for three years, and a balance of payments deficit has frozen imports, severely hampering industrial growth.
“Pakistanis are more discouraged than they have been in decades about a multitude of economic, political and security challenges that are threatening their country’s stability,” Gallup said its poll findings revealed.
“Last year, just one in four approved of Pakistan’s leadership.”
Frontrunner Sharif, jailed before the 2018 election but freed to seek medical treatment in Britain, returned to Pakistan last year and has since seen a string of convictions overturned, allowing him to run again in the elections.