Ayyaz Mallick is a lecturer in human geography at the University of Liverpool.
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.
Pakistan is due to hold national elections on February 8, but the country’s most popular politician, Imran Khan, is in jail, while his supporters face escalating repression. The country is in the middle of a crisis of democracy.
Pakistan’s government has imprisoned former PM Imran Khan and called elections for early next year. The turmoil since Khan’s ouster, perhaps the most dramatic crisis in three already-turbulent decades, is symptomatic of deeper political-economic woes.
The Pakistani authorities arrested former PM Imran Khan earlier this month, provoking a violent backlash from his supporters. Pakistan is going through a profoundly dangerous crisis where miscalculation by the main political actors could result in disaster.
Pakistan’s ousted leader, Imran Khan, is continuing his bid to regain power after surviving an assassination attempt last week. With the traditional parties discredited and divisions opening up in the military, the country is entering uncharted waters.