In this debt-strangled country, whose political aspirations have just been smothered by the army at the ballot box on February 8, democracy is but a distant memory.

Since the spring of 2022, the military and both the Sharif and Bhutto groups have done everything in their power to remove Imran Khan, the former prime minister (2018-2022), without understanding that they were creating a martyr in the process. They threw their opponent in jail, decapitated and dismantled his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and hampered his campaign. But, despite all these dirty tricks, the Pakistani people put their champion Khan’s candidates in the lead, creating the height of his popularity.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/03/01/pakistan-s-worst-case-scenario-arrives-rigged-elections-and-an-economic-crisis_6577128_23.html