In China-ally Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif vs PTI battleground, uncertainty, apathy and strong-arm tactics collide
- PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif needs seats in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to become Pakistan’s PM for an unprecedented fourth time
- But even from jail, Imran Khan’s PTI won’t make it easy, as public anger is stoked at the establishment – and some voters lose faith in the system
Many prospective contestants from jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party have been preoccupied with winning the legal right to participate.
About a quarter of the party’s candidates initially had their nomination papers rejected by the country’s election commission on dubious grounds, reflecting the determination of Pakistan’s powerful military-led establishment to keep Khan and his cohorts out of power.
Until Monday, it was also unclear whether Khan’s nemesis Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, would be permitted to contest the election either.
Sharif was sacked as prime minister in 2017 by Pakistan’s supreme court in equally controversial circumstances and banned for life from holding public office for “dishonest practices”.
Distrustful of the establishment’s intentions, the PML-N did not start to announce its official candidates until Wednesday night, two days after the supreme court had overturned Sharif’s lifetime ban.
The Supreme Court deprived the PTI of its election symbol, a cricket bat, late on Saturday in a ruling that endorsed the election commission’s prior decision. It is widely believed the loss of the party’s emblem could confuse millions of uneducated voters.