Pakistan court to hear election violations case
The Pakistan Peshawar High Court will hear a case today over electoral code violations in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The High Court previously stopped the (ECP) from taking action against three provincial leaders over petitions they filed that challenged revisions made to the code of conduct. Notices were later issued to the petitioners and former-Prime Minister Imran Khan after the latter addressed an election rally in Lower Dir. Khan received two more notices for similar addresses in Swat and Malakand. Despite the ECP barring from speaking him at rallies, Kahn only received a $270 fine. A recent ECP investigation found that Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf party is the top violator of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa‘s electoral code.
Expect the opposition in parliament to use the case as leverage to further their bid for the government following Khan’s ouster in a no-confidence vote on April 9. Longer-term, expect that this will generate further political turmoil and instability given ambiguity over which faction the military (the primary powerbroker and stamp of legitimacy for Pakistani governments) will support moving forward.
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