This Thursday 128 million Pakistanis are called to the polls, but in all likelihood, less than half will bother to go. Election day will not be a celebration of democracy, just as the campaign has not been, subject to a climate of intimidation. For the umpteenth time, the leadership of the armed forces has punched the table to favor an outcome in line with their interests. Taking no chances, the front-runner, populist former prime minister Imran Khan, was jailed in August, sixteen months after being ousted from the government palace in a top-sponsored no-confidence motion. all.
To make matters worse, in the last few days there have been three sentences against Khan, which result in a sentence of 31 years in prison. Likewise, his Pakistan Justice Movement (PTI), with a large following among the youth, has been viciously persecuted and many of its candidates – those who have not been arrested – have had no choice but to present themselves as to independent Its symbol has been banned.
To further dishonor Pakistan’s eternally young and troubled democracy, almost all political forces have happily agreed to dance to the tune of the military march. This design envisages a fourth term for Nawaz Sharif, head of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N). To make this possible, a judicial amnesty facilitated the timely return of Sharif, who had been living as a fugitive in London for years because of his chronic corruption problems.
His younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif, was warming the chair to the leadership of the government, from the motion of no confidence against Imran Khan, in April 2022, until last August, when he took the reins of a government interim In the Pakistani model, the government in turn is not allowed to put the ballot boxes in order to save it the temptation of cheating. But the supposedly caretaker government has even allowed itself to put the flagship airline, PIA, up for sale, as well as extend its mandate until the final verdict against Imran Khan is passed.
The first verdict, of 14 years in prison, for selling gifts from foreign governments, is practically an anecdote in a country where the political class is dedicated to the systematic looting of budgets and public banking. The second, ten years in prison, charges a “revelation of official secrets”, with reference to a vague mention of a cable from the ambassador to Washington. Although what is already bordering on the absurd are the additional seven years behind bars “for illegal marriage”, for not having respected the margin of three months since the divorce (from his current wife) to contract marriage.
The anger of the military leadership against the charismatic Imran Khan – who had previously been used against the two major political families – is not without reasons. After being ousted as prime minister – after a few weeks of his visit to the Kremlin – Khan spent several months mobilizing large crowds, demanding early elections. In the course of a motorized march, he received a warning in the form of an attack, with two shots to the chest.
Far from getting upset, the ex-captain of the cricket team upped the ante against the military hierarchy. Last May, when he was finally arrested, some of his supporters did what had never been seen in the history of Pakistan. Looting and setting fire to some military bases and especially high command residences.
The primacy of civil society is a struggle that the Pakistani political class has never resolved, in three quarters of a century. Sportsman Imran Khan, even being a product of Lahore’s finest schools, had virtually no chance of winning it. Especially when faced with the other parties, eager to share power with the permission of the generals in a return of what they shamelessly call “the Pakistan of yesteryear”.
The other major party in contention, the Pakistan People’s Party, with little chance of victory, is headed by the young Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of the murdered former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, and grandson of the prime minister executed by the military, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
