Pakistan’s Election Stitch-Up Exposed Its Ruling Bloc
Despite heavy repression, candidates backed by Imran Khan’s party were performing strongly in Pakistan’s election until the authorities started tampering with the results. The country’s ruling bloc is now devoid of popular legitimacy or a coherent project.
A man watches Pakistan’s newly sworn-in prime minister Shehbaz Sharif on a television in Karachi on March 4, 2024. (Rizwan Tabassum / AFP via Getty Images)
The general elections held in Pakistan on February 8 herald a decisive shift in the terrain of mainstream politics. Candidates backed by Imran Khan’s effectively banned Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party were on course for a large plurality, if not a majority, in the new parliament before being cut down to size.
The authorities had suppressed and hounded PTI-supported candidates throughout the election campaign, with military-judicial manipulations depriving them of a party platform. The Pakistani judiciary locked up Khan himself with targeted cases of financial and moral corruption that ranged from the plausible to the ridiculous.
On polling day, mobile and internet services were shut down in a bid to suppress voter turnout. However, the electorate, especially young people and women in core urban areas, came out in droves to vote for PTI-backed independents.
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