Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi have been sentenced for seven years in an “un-Islamic nikah” case

New Delhi:

1. Imran Khan has been imprisoned in Rawalpindi for months, whereas Bibi surrendered this week and is being held at her dwelling, declared a “sub-jail”, on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad.
2. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has been severely hamstrung forward of the election, with scores of leaders jailed, supporters barred from holding rallies, and the social gathering stripped of its talisman cricket bat image.
3. The social gathering, nonetheless, is seeking to reverse the setbacks with large on-line campaigns, led by new candidates who’re first-time contestants, a BBC report stated.
4. This implies even when Imran Khan is in jail, the PTI will proceed to take his recommendation and work out methods with him. For now, the PTI stated it is going to request the excessive courtroom to scrap the trial courtroom’s verdict towards Imran Khan and his spouse.
5. Imran Khan, who was booted from workplace by a vote of no confidence in April 2022, insists practically 200 offences he has since been charged with have been fabricated by the military-led institution to cease him from contesting elections on February 8.
6. Some 12.7 crore individuals are eligible to vote in a fractious ballot many analysts describe as closely influenced by the army, who instantly dominated Pakistan for many years and proceed to behave as political kingmakers.
7. Three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned from a self-imposed exile and noticed many convictions evaporate — an indication his social gathering has been anointed by the generals to guide the subsequent authorities.
8. With both sides decrying the opposite as traitors, Pakistan Peoples Social gathering (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari claims he’s the one candidate pointing a method out of polarised politics forward of subsequent Thursday’s election. Bhutto Zardari is making an attempt to place himself as a reasonable exterior the melee — pledging reality and reconciliation, launch of political prisoners and an finish to “the politics of vendetta”.
9. Pakistan is having fun with certainly one of its longest interval with out direct military rule, however analysts say the army has been once more intervening in civilian affairs at unprecedented ranges in recent times. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto — Bilawal’s grandfather and Pakistan’s ninth Prime Minister — was deposed by a military coup and hanged in 1979.
10. Whereas cricket star Imran Khan benefited from army backing when his PTI social gathering surged to energy in 2018, his rise was additionally seen as a sea change by the youth bucking a practice of dynastic politics.

With inputs from AFP