Pakistan elections: Former high commissioner explains why Nawaz Sharif could return as PM

Former high commissioner of India to Islamabad Ajay Bisaria, speaking on the Pakistan Parliamentary Elections scheduled for February 8, said on Wednesday it seemed less like an election and more like a selection of the candidate by the country’s army.

“What is scheduled to happen on February 8, seems less like an election and more like a selection because Pakistan’s Army has shown us in the past few days what result they are desiring in the upcoming elections. They want Nawaz Sharif to be selected,” Ajay Bisaria told news agency ANI.

From all accounts, he said, these elections are not just the most predictable, but also the most rigged, “because it’s clear for everyone in Pakistan if you see the commentary that is coming from within the country, that the election results are clear, the army in various ways is doing pre-election engineering, it will probably do some election engineering and post-election engineering to get a government that it wants in place”.

Several human rights and UN agencies have urged the country to ensure free and fair elections and the availability of the Internet throughout the polling process.

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to 34 years in jail and disqualified from running after being convicted in four cases. His party and supporters allege that the sentencing is retaliation for his criticism against Pakistan’s military. With Khan sidelined, Nawaz Sharif has emerged as a prominent candidate for the premiership. Sharif, a three-time ex-prime minister, has returned to Pakistan and cleared of previous convictions.

Bisaria said, “As we have seen, if free and fair elections had taken place, PTI chief Imran Khan would have won and his party would have emerged as the ruling party because of its popularity in Pakistan’s Punjab. However, he is in jail. It is being said that he has been cleaned bolt thrice. He has been sentenced to prison in three cases. This is an attempt to keep him out of elections and break his party.”

Predicting the army’s motives, he said, “They are trying to bring in a coalition that the army can control.”

Speaking of India-Pakistan ties post-elections, Bisaria said, “Pakistan would have to take the first step and we will have to wait till June-July after elections have held in India too to see the result in the relations between both countries.”