ISLAMABAD, Jan 15, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - The frontrunner party for Pakistan's 
delayed elections began campaigning Monday, after a weekend court decision 
effectively sealed the opposition party of ex-prime minister Imran Khan out 
of the race.

Pakistan's vote next month has been marred by claims of pre-poll rigging, 
with analysts saying the army establishment is orchestrating Khan's exclusion 
whilst backing three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

On Monday, Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party kicked off 
campaigning in the eastern city of Okara, where thousands of supporters 
thronged for speeches by senior leaders.

"Those who love this country can't vote for anyone else but Nawaz Sharif," 
said his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif, a vice-president of the PML-N party.

Meanwhile Khan -- the nation's most popular politician -- is languishing in 
jail and barred from standing as a result of cases he claims have been 
confected by the establishment.

On Saturday, the Supreme Court dealt a fresh blow to his Pakistan Tehreek-e-
Insaf (PTI) party by denying them their cricket bat election symbol on ballot 
papers.

The move effectively forces PTI candidates to run as independents and 
disallows them an icon vital for allowing millions of illiterate voters to 
identify party nominees February 8.

PTI once had huge street power, able to muster thousands in carnivalesque 
rallies across the country until authorities staged a months-long crackdown.

On Sunday, a PTI gathering in the southern city of Karachi was disbanded by 
police who arrested the organisers.

- 'Acceptable to the establishment' -

The poll will take place amid increasing militant attacks and an economic 
nosedive that has ravaged the rupee and sent the cost-of-living soaring.

Originally due in November, the election commission delayed the vote in order 
to redraw constituencies after a new census.

Analysts suggest the hold-up has benefitted the powerful army establishment 
seen as the chief architects of an ongoing crackdown denting the prospects of 
Khan and PTI.

"It's going to be a controversial election: one party sees it as a complete 
negation of democracy," Tufts University history professor Ayesha Jalal told 
AFP.

Nawaz Sharif did not appear at Monday's rally and has been largely absent 
from the public eye since returning from self-imposed exile in Britain late 
last year.

Since then the 74-year-old -- last ousted in 2017 -- has seen the myriad 
corruption cases plaguing him dissolve in the courts, an apparent sign of his 
reformed relationship with the army establishment.

The military has directly ruled Pakistan for decades of its history and 
continues to wield huge influence behind the scenes.

Onetime cricket star Khan blames the army for an avalanche of court cases 
burying him since he was ousted by a no-confidence vote in 2022 -- saying 
they were triggered to prevent his return to power.

He is currently jailed and has separately been barred from standing for 
election on the basis of a graft conviction.

Despite a narrowing margin, a Gallup Pakistan poll taken in December showed 
71-year-old Khan still has a five-point lead over Sharif in approval ratings.

"Khan thinks that just because he's 'popular' he deserves the key to the helm 
of state authority," said history professor Jalal.

"Unfortunately in Pakistan it's not just popularity that counts, it's your 
acceptability to a security-conscious establishment."