In Pakistan, Voting and Violence

By Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian

It seems every Pakistani election is preceded by violence and political detentions. This one has proved no exception.

In the run-up to the July 25 vote for the National Assembly, there were high-profile arrests and bloodshed.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter and political heir Maryam were arrested at the Lahore airport July 13 on corruption charges as they returned to the country in an attempt to rally their beleaguered party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

The arrests came the same day the election campaign took a deadly turn. More than 130 people, including a candidate from another party, were killed in two militant attacks elsewhere in Pakistan.

In the southwestern province of Baluchistan, a suicide bomber killed 128 people, including a politician running for a provincial legislature. Four others died in a strike in Pakistan's northwest, spreading panic in the country. 

Police officers and members of a paramilitary force known as the Rangers clashed with protesters in several cities in the Punjab, the country’s most populous province and a stronghold of Sharif’s party.

The police also arrested at least 600 workers of the PML-N on security-related charges.

 “It’s the sort of crude repression that recalls dark periods of Pakistani history under military rule,” said Omar Waraich, deputy South Asia director for Amnesty International.

The Sharifs were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in connection with their ownership of expensive properties in London that the courts said were bought with illegally acquired money. Sharif's son-in-law is currently serving a one-year prison sentence on the same charge.

The Supreme Court removed Sharif as prime minister last year and barred him from seeking office again. He has already served as the country’s prime minister three times.

The Sharifs contend that the case was manufactured by their political foes and the country’s powerful military. The former prime minister remarked that Pakistan now has a “state above the state.”

During his term in office, Sharif criticized the military’s involvement in civilian affairs and its efforts in fighting extremists. 

He stated that the entire nation has been converted into a “big prison,” and urged the people of the country to break the shackles and free themselves.

His brother Shahbaz Sharif now heads Sharif’s party and is campaigning for re-election on July 25.

There are a total of 342 seats being contested, out of which 272 are general seats while the remaining 70 are special seats reserved for women and ethnic minority candidates. As well, the four provincial assemblies of Punjab, Sind, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are also holding elections.

Altogether, 3,459 candidates will contest on 272 general seats of the National Assembly, while 8,396 are running for 577 provincial seats.

Polls have consistently shown a close race for parliament between the PML-N and the Pakistan Movement for Justice (PTI), with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) polling in third place ahead of several smaller parties. 

The PTI was founded in 1996 by former national cricket captain Imran Khan, who seems favoured by the military, while the PPP is the political vehicle of the Bhutto family.

Its current leader is Bilawal  Bhutto Zardari, the son of the Pakistani politician and slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari, the former president of Pakistan.

In elections held five years ago, the PML-N secured 166 seats in the National Assembly and the PTI only 35, with the incumbent PPP slashed to a mere 15 seats.

The army will deploy 350,000 security personnel to polling stations throughout the country on election day.