Produced by: Mukesh Adhikary
Pakistan is likely to witness a political upheaval with the anticipated return of PML(N) chief Nawaz Sharif as the Prime Minister. If he does win, this will be his fourth stint as the Pakistan Prime Minister.
He was the Prime Minister of Pakistan between 1990-93, 1997-99 and 2013-17, but he has never completed a full term. In fact, no Pakistan PM has ever completed a full term in the 77 years of the country's existence.
Pakistan is holding the general elections today (February 8) and the results are likely to be announced in the next couple of weeks. The country has seen a wave of violence in the run up to the elections.
On the day of the polling, the interim government 'temporarily suspended' mobile services in the country. Opposition parties have cried foul and alleged poll rigging.
The general consensus among political analysts and experts in Pakistan is that Sharif will return as the PM. Sharif's two main rivals in Pakistan's political landscape are PTI's Imran Khan, who is not fighting the polls because he is in jail, and PPP's Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
Sharif was on a self-imposed exile from the country since November 2019 amid corruption charges and an ongoing jail term. But fortunes have changed in favour of Sharif. His rival Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan is in jail and he seems to have found favour with the Pakistan Army, evinced by the clearing of all the charges against him.
The current political situation is the opposite of 2018 when Imran Khan was the shoo-in candidate in the parliamentary elections and Sharif was facing prison. Khan was then considered to have enjoyed the military's support in cornering Sharif.
Later in 2019, Sharif, who was then serving a 10-year prison sentence, had left the country on the pretext of medical treatment. Sharif spent the next few years in London while his younger brother Shebaz Sharif managed the PML(N) in Pakistan
Shehbaz Sharif was able to dislodge Imran Khan's PTI as the ruling party in April 2022 through a no-confidence vote. Nawaz Sharif continued to remain politically active from UK and finally returned to Pakistan in October 2023.
A couple of months before Sharif returned to Pakistan in October 2023, Imran Khan was arrested and handed a three-year jail term in a corruption case.
That was the first of the three convictions Khan has faced so far. In January 2024, closer to the general election, he was also sentenced to a 10-year jail term for leaking state secrets and a 14-year jail term for corruption.