Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Military-backed Nawaz Sharif to launch campaign for a fourth term

Analysts believe the country’s powerful military has thrown its backing to Sharif after it was locked in a standoff with Imran Khan

Military-backed Nawaz Sharif to launch campaign for a fourth term

Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whose party is considered a front-runner to win general elections in February, will kick off his campaign next week, aides said, days after the Supreme Court cleared him to run for a fourth term.

The campaign for the Feb 8 poll, delayed since November, looks set to fire up a lacklustre race in an uncertain political environment after Sharif's main rival and former premier Imran Khan, was jailed and disqualified from contesting.


Analysts believe the South Asian nation's powerful military has thrown its backing to Sharif, 74, after it was locked in a standoff with former cricket star Khan, 71.

That gives Sharif an edge in a country where army generals mostly decide on making or breaking governments.

"Sharif is a front-runner because he and his party are back in the military's good graces," said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia specialist at Washington think tank the Wilson Center.

"In the polarised, vendetta-driven environment of Pakistani politics, it is brutally simple: Nawaz is a bitter rival of Imran Khan, and that serves the army well, which turned on Khan and doesn't want him to return to power."

Despite Sharif's return to Pakistan in October from four years in self-imposed exile, his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had not yet begun its campaign, since he faced a lifetime bar from contesting polls.

On Monday, however, the Supreme Court scrapped such lifetime election bans for those with criminal convictions, clearing the way for Sharif to run.

Major players such as the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of late prime minister Benazir Bhutto have already begun campaigns, but these have been muted compared to past polls.

Bhutto's son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, her party's candidate for prime minister, pointed to the delay in launching Sharif's campaign, saying it called into question whether elections would be held at all.

Khan's PTI, the winner of the 2018 elections, which is known for festive gatherings that draw a good turnout, is grappling with a military-backed crackdown.

Its campaign efforts must also contend with state-backed efforts to block candidates on legal and technical grounds, it said, with its leader in jail.

"We are going through an election where people have no trust as they know and they are seeing that the state is blatantly pushing one party against the wall," said author and political commentator Ayesha Siddiqa.

"We may get some activity, of course, when Sharif gets out and holds rallies."

Sharif's key pledge will be to rebuild the $350-billion economy which is in dire straits, battling high inflation, an unstable currency and low foreign exchange reserves, despite averting a debt default with an IMF bailout last summer.

"We have delivered on the economic front every time we came to power," said the aide, Rashid. Previous terms in office saw Sharif favour policies focused on ambitious infrastructure-led economic growth.

Sharif, elected prime minister in 1990, 1997, and 2013, has blamed his 2017 ouster and subsequent corruption convictions on the military, with which he had fallen out. The military denies this.

That fallout is believed to have stemmed from differences over handling relations with arch-rival and neighbour India and his government's treason trial of a former ruler and army chief, the late General Pervez Mushraff.

Still, Sharif appears to be the only viable option for the generals, said Aqil Shah, an author and specialist in the military politics of Pakistan at the University of Oklahoma.

"The military institution is only concerned with preserving and advancing its hegemonic interests," he said. "Hence, it has no permanent enemies or friends."

More For You

Sunita-Williams-Reuters

Sunita Williams was part of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission and had been stranded in space for over nine months. (Photo: Reuters)

Reuters)

India looks amazing from space, says Sunita Williams

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams described India as "amazing" from space and expressed her intention to visit her "father's home country" to share her experiences on space exploration.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, she responded to a question about how India appeared from space and the possibility of collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Keep ReadingShow less
british-muslims-iStock

The study noted that this identification was not due to any doctrinal obligation but was influenced by the perception that many Muslims do not feel fully accepted as British. (Representational image: iStock)

iStock

Majority of British Muslims identify by faith first, study finds

A STUDY by the Institute for the Impact of Faith in Life (IIFL) has found that most British Muslims identify primarily with their religion rather than their nationality.

The research, based on a survey of 815 British Muslim adults by Whitestone Insight, revealed that 71 per cent of respondents identified as Muslim first, while 27 per cent identified as British, English, or Scottish first.

Keep ReadingShow less
Car Tax Changes: EV Owners Now Required to Pay for the First Time

Owners of electric vehicles registered on or after 1 April 2025 will pay £10 for the first year, followed by the standard VED rate of £195 from the second year. (Representational image: iStock)

iStock

Car tax changes take effect: EV owners to pay for first time

FROM today, 1 April 2025, electric cars, vans, and motorcycles in the UK will be subject to Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) for the first time.

The change, introduced in the 2022 Autumn Statement by former Conservative Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, aims to make motoring taxation fairer.

Keep ReadingShow less
scotland-minimum-wages-iStock

Full-time workers on the National Living Wage will receive an annual pay increase of £1,400 in real terms. (Representational image: iStock)

iStock

Wage increase takes effect for thousands of workers in Scotland

HUNDREDS of thousands of workers in Scotland will see a pay increase as new National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates take effect from Tuesday.

The changes will benefit approximately 220,000 people, according to STV News.

Keep ReadingShow less
uk-energy-bill-iStock

Water bills, energy prices, and council tax are rising, while the minimum wage has also increased (Representational image: iStock)

iStock

April bill increases put financial strain on single parents

A RANGE of essential household bills are increasing from April, with Citizens Advice warning that single parents will be among the hardest hit.

Water bills, energy prices, and council tax are rising, while the minimum wage has also increased, BBC reported.

Keep ReadingShow less