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A scion of one of Pakistan's leading political families has warned that the country cannot afford any further postponement of elections scheduled for next month as it grapples with an ongoing economic crisis and an increasingly unstable security situation.
“Pakistan is grappling with the perfect storm of crisis,” Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and leader of the liberal-leaning Pakistan People’s Party, told the Financial Times.
“Yesterday,” Zardari added, elections were needed to form a government that would “take control of our economic situation, unemployment, poverty and inflation that has reached historic levels.” [and] Terrorism”.
Zardari's warning comes as Pakistan grapples with an acute economic downturn and a rise in deadly terrorist attacks. This week saw unprecedented attacks between Pakistan and neighboring Iran, which Islamabad and Tehran said targeted separatist terror groups.
Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves dwindled to less than a month's worth of imports last year, leading to shortages of essential goods. Islamabad averted default with a $3 billion IMF emergency financing program. But economists have warned that the new government will need to secure a longer-term loan after the current program ends in April.
“Once elections take place,” Zardari said, “our international partners, especially those keen to invest in Pakistan, will have confidence in our political stability.”
But the election, now scheduled for February 8, has already been postponed until November to allow for redistricting, and analysts have raised concerns that it may not go ahead given the deteriorating security situation. Pakistan's Senate passed a non-binding resolution this month calling for a postponement, citing an increase in terrorist attacks and harsh weather conditions.
The legitimacy of the election has also been questioned due to the absence from the ballot of Imran Khan, the former prime minister who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in 2022 and jailed on corruption charges.
Khan, who denies the allegations, will be barred from holding office for five years, but he remains Pakistan's most popular political figure and some analysts believe his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party would win in a free election.
A recent Gallup-Pakistan poll puts Khan's approval rating at 57 percent, ahead of 52 percent for Nawaz Sharif, the three-time former prime minister whose return to Pakistan in October from self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom has rocked the government race. Zardari is at 35 percent, although analysts have criticized the accuracy of opinion polls in Pakistan in the past.
Zardari, 35, inherited the leadership of the PPP from his mother, who was assassinated during the 2007 election campaign. He served as foreign minister for a year under the brief tenure of Sharif's brother Shehbaz Sharif that followed Khan's ouster.
Khan, meanwhile, remains in prison and the PTI suffered a military-backed crackdown that saw thousands of its members and supporters jailed last year after his arrest sparked violent unrest.
Khan “knows that he will not win the elections,” Zardari said, adding that the PTI had planned to “create so much political chaos and difficulties for the new government.” Khan's arrest last year sparked violent unrest.
The Supreme Court last week further weakened the party's election campaign, upholding an election commission's decision to ban the PTI from using a cricket bat as a party symbol – a major setback in the country of 241 million where many illiterate people traditionally select candidates based on theirs Have identified party symbols. As a result, PTI candidates were forced to run as independents under a range of symbols.
A PTI spokesperson said the party was “looking for a fair fight so that we can participate in elections peacefully, but our party has been deprived of all legal avenues to participate in elections.”
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Political analysts said Khan particularly retained the support of Pakistanis, who were hit hard by the economic crisis. Inflation has risen to as much as 40 percent after sharp increases in electricity and gas tariffs, one of the conditions of the IMF package.
Zardari warned that Islamabad must take further austerity measures in consultation with the IMF and other lenders to escape “the economic quagmire.”
“The new government will have to make some difficult decisions,” he said.
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