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An Election Observation Mission of the European Union (EU) concluded that the July 25 national elections in Pakistan were "credible" overall. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), although it is a bit short of a majority in the National Assembly, and its leader, Imran Khan, the country's next prime minister, will welcome this boost. This is especially true because the two traditionally powerful parties – the Pakistani Islamic League (Nawaz) or PML (N) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) which had ruled from 2008 to 2013 – rejected the result, complaining bitterly of massive rigging.
The Pakistani military and judiciary, as well as PTI, would be unhappy that the EU mission notes that the elections "took place in the context of allegations of interference in the electoral process by the military establishment and the role of the judiciary as a political actor ". He also noted that the cases against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who, along with his daughter and political heiress Maryam, were imprisoned for corruption, "reshaped the political environment before the elections".
The mission of the EU was polite in its observation. The fact is that between them, the army and the courts had decided that the Sharifs had to be defeated.
The army did not forgive Sharif for having demanded a decisive role in the establishment of Pakistan's security and foreign policy and to have first insisted on the trial of former President Pervez Musharraf for treason. The superior courts decided to cut off the judicial corners to oust him from the prime minister's president and then monitor his conviction for corruption charges.
Sharif and Maryam have returned bravely to Pakistan and to prison, while Musharraf is abroad, in collusion with the army, a fugitive from Pakistani justice. This is the fear of the army that no politician and no media have brought to light this obvious contrast.
So now, 22 years after founding the party, Imran Khan will lead the country's government. His party will also run the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which he ruled from 2013. The PTI was unable to double PML (N) in the country's largest province, the Punjab, but it will probably form the government in association with other parties. Neither the army nor Khan can allow the Sharifs to continue to rule the Punjab because it will be a drag on their ambitions.