Pakistan’s General Election Is a Generals’
Election
Since the Country’s Founding, the Military Has Ruled Over Civilian Affairs—This Vote Won’t Change That
Maybe it’s best to ask if Pakistan’s 2024 election is to be called a general election, or a generals’ election.
As a lawyer and rule of law consultant for different development and non-government organizations, I think that despite the country’s robust court system, its elections exert rule by generals’ rule—not law.
Since Pakistan’s inception in 1947, rarely has an election result here truly conveyed the people’s will. The establishment—comprising of military higher-ups and the occasional inclusion of a few top officials from the civil bureaucracy—has already stolen the people’s mandate to elect …