Now that the Pakistan Parliament has been dissolved, with former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan still the single most popular politician in the country, sentenced to a three-year jail term on corruption charges and also barred from politics for five years (both decisions have been appealed), Pakistan has entered a familiar cycle of multiple uncertainties.
Perhaps the most important one regards the question of whether elections will actually be held as mandated in 90 days. The outgoing government which comprises more than a dozen coalition partners has deliberately created this uncertainty by making contradictory and ambiguous statements. While it is in their interest to hold elections quickly so that they can reconvene as a government now that their most formidable opponent has been banned from politics (at least for now), they themselves are uncertain of their own future.
Editorial | Stifling dissent: On Imran Khan’s arrest and Pakistan’s democracy
