Elections are scheduled to take place in Pakistan on Thursday. “More than 120 million people will exercise their right to vote on February 8,” Acting Information Minister Murtaza Solangi said on Monday, according to Pakistan News Magazine The Dawn. Executive because Pakistan has been led by a transitional government since August last year. Before that, a coalition was in power, which in turn forced Prime Minister Imran Khan out of office in April 2022 through a vote of no confidence. The last regular election in which Kahn won was in 2018. But how the coming elections will turn out is not yet entirely clear, even two days in advance.
A police station in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province was attacked at dawn on Monday. At least ten police officers died and six others were injured. “After entering the building, the terrorists used hand grenades,” said the deputy police chief of Daraban, where the attack took place. So far, none of the terrorist groups based in Pakistan have claimed responsibility for the attack, but it is certain that the elections will be an occasion to remember.
Four people were killed in a bomb attack last week
A candidate for the National Assembly was shot dead elsewhere in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa last Wednesday. On the same day, another political leader was assassinated at his party’s election office in Balochistan province. Last Tuesday, four people were killed in a bomb attack in Balochistan after an election rally. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
Balochistan is a province located partly in Pakistan and partly in Iran. Two weeks ago there were attacks from Tehran and Islamabad on each other’s territory in order to hit terrorist groups. At the same time, there was a diplomatic de-escalation. Because both countries have a common problem with terror in the region. Balochistan is rich in natural resources, but poor in infrastructure and crime is rampant. Kidnapping, extortion and protection money serve as sources of income for various terrorist groups. As is the case in neighboring Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, which in turn borders Afghanistan. Daraban, where Monday’s attacks occurred, is in an area considered a stronghold of the ultra-conservative Muslim party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI). Last July, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a JUI rally, killing 45 people.
Fazal-ur-Rehman, the head of the JUI, traveled to Kabul to meet the Taliban supreme leader just last month. It was the first visit by a high-ranking politician since the takeover of power in Afghanistan in 2021. Among other things, it was about terror in the border region, which is bad for trade and the people there. Nevertheless, this wave of attacks occurred. The JUI has already called for the elections to be postponed due to security concerns.
Everything in Islamabad has already been arranged in such a way that the candidate Nawaz Sharif, favored by the powerful military, can virtually no longer lose. Above all, the still popular former Prime Minister Imran Khan was sidelined. Last weekend, Khan, who is already in prison, was given another seven years, along with his wife Bushra, who is also serving seven years in prison because both of them failed to observe the waiting period prescribed by Islam before getting married after divorcing Bushra’s former husband had.
The verdicts against Khan and his wife came “after hours of hasty court hearings,” a spokesman for Khan’s party said afterwards. “The way these processes are being conducted will put the elections on February 8th into question.” But they should still take place.