Pakistan Election: Every election history repeats, only the character changes, the army puts its puppet on the chair.

Pakistan is preparing for its 12th general elections on 8 February. But its internal state is leaving no stone unturned to ensure its ‘victory’, turning the entire electoral process into a farce. A former Prime Minister is in jail under various charges. Another former prime minister was first in jail, then faced exile and is now back. Criminal cases against the latter are being easily dropped. Although interference in elections is not a new thing in the state of Pakistan, the action taken by the state authorities against Imran Khan and his party Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has surprised even the experienced analysts and political class of Pakistan. Is. With less than a month left for voting to take place, it is clear that Pakistan is headed for its most manipulated general elections ever.

There are many examples of PTI being broken and made a victim of pre-election rigging. Its top leader Imran Khan has been in jail since August 2023, facing multiple charges including corruption, compromising state secrets and sabotaging military facilities. Many of his party leaders have reportedly left it suddenly under pressure, with some of them even joining their PTI rival factions. Due to being in jail, Imran Khan had to step down from the chair of his own party. The nomination papers of several PTI election candidates, including Imran Khan, have been rejected by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the so-called autonomous body responsible for conducting elections.

The Pakistani public (primarily its youth population) believes that the Pakistan Army is behind Khan’s disqualification and the many cases filed against him. The history of Pakistan is replete with such examples of the military establishing its dominance over the civilian government. In the past, even when army generals were not officially in power, they continued to influence the country’s decision-making and its political leadership. Pakistan has been in constant political crisis due to the military’s continuous interference in politics over the decades, which has led to the establishment of a deep state. Today, Pakistan’s deep state does not need to maintain direct or overt political control, as it has de facto control over every strategic decision made in the country.

Just before the 2018 elections, Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N was similarly at the receiving end of the wrath of the ruling establishment and later PTI came to power with the blessings of the ruling establishment. After this, Imran Khan rapidly established close relations with the Pakistani Army. During his Prime Ministership, he significantly pushed the military’s agenda in terms of its stance on the Kashmir issue (abrogation of Article 370). Improved relations with the US and managed to raise funds to maintain somewhat increased military spending. However, Imran Khan’s consolidation of power under military support was short-lived. Differences with the establishment first came to the fore in 2021 when former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa appointed Lieutenant General Nadeem Anjum as the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Khan opposed this in favor of his choice, General Faiz Hameed. However, he later failed to bring any change. Later, both Khan and Bajwa started having differences on foreign policy issues. Furthermore, Khan started speaking openly about his personal discussions with the army on various political platforms, which perhaps was not well received by the ruling establishment, which led to Imran Khan being jailed. In the present scenario it seems that history is repeating itself.

Like the 2018 elections, the upcoming February elections also seem to have a similar fate. Only this time, the situation has changed, whereby PML (N) seems to be gaining prominence at the expense of PTI. Pakistan’s Punjab province, which holds the most seats, is going to determine the fate of the winning party in the upcoming election. The Deep State, under the direction of the Pakistani Army, is making every possible effort to achieve a majority vote in favor of the PML(N) by any means possible. The disqualification of PTI members’ candidature, along with Imran Khan’s own nomination, is undoubtedly a political expression of the power wielded by the country’s deep state.