Decoding Pakistan's elections and its consequences for region...
Decoding Pakistan's elections and its consequences for region...
The first general elections in pakistan after the July 2018 election that installed former prime minister Imran Khan took place last Thursday. Following a historic no-confidence vote in 2022, Khan was removed from office and is currently incarcerated. With widespread accusations of vote manipulation, independent candidates supported by Khan's political party, pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), unexpectedly became the single largest party. The established political heavyweights in pakistan are working feverishly to put together a coalition administration."Everyone's interpretation of what transpired prior to the election is completely wrong. Moreover, everyone needs to begin anew and ascertain what has transpired," said Zoha Waseem, an assistant professor of sociology at the university of Warwick. The Grand Tamasha podcast, which is co-produced by HT and the Carnegie Endowment for international Peace, featured her remarks on last week's episode.
The PTI was suppressed in the months leading up to the election, with party members being imprisoned, intimidated, and ultimately compelled to run as independent candidates in 2024. Many believed that Pakistan's formidable military was the driving force behind these actions. However, the military seems to have been taken aback by the election results, as do possibly a lot of Pakistanis.Waseem told host Milan Vaishnav about the surprise outcome, stating, "It was exciting because there was this idea that people were not interested in the polls." Because everything was organized, the stage was set, and everything else was planned, people were rather despondent and assumed that voters would not show up. This resulted from a lack of energy, zeal, and momentum. However, "the delight comes when the outcomes begin to trickle in because you're instantly witnessing that this is not going as expected; this was not going as per the military's strategies," he said.
The first general elections in pakistan after the July 2018 election that installed former prime minister Imran Khan took place last Thursday. Following a historic no-confidence vote in 2022, Khan was removed from office and is currently incarcerated. With widespread accusations of vote manipulation, independent candidates supported by Khan's political party, pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), unexpectedly became the single largest party. The established political heavyweights in pakistan are working feverishly to put together a coalition administration."Everyone's interpretation of what transpired prior to the election is completely wrong. Moreover, everyone needs to begin anew and ascertain what has transpired," said Zoha Waseem, an assistant professor of sociology at the university of Warwick. The Grand Tamasha podcast, which is co-produced by HT and the Carnegie Endowment for international Peace, featured her remarks on last week's episode.
The PTI was suppressed in the months leading up to the election, with party members being imprisoned, intimidated, and ultimately compelled to run as independent candidates in 2024. Many believed that Pakistan's formidable military was the driving force behind these actions. However, the military seems to have been taken aback by the election results, as do possibly a lot of Pakistanis.Waseem told host Milan Vaishnav about the surprise outcome, stating, "It was exciting because there was this idea that people were not interested in the polls." Because everything was organized, the stage was set, and everything else was planned, people were rather despondent and assumed that voters would not show up. This resulted from a lack of energy, zeal, and momentum. However, "the delight comes when the outcomes begin to trickle in because you're instantly witnessing that this is not going as expected; this was not going as per the military's strategies," he said.