As Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced on Sunday, the government and parliament were dissolved on Wednesday, August 9, the Pakistani presidency announced in a statement, and elections, according to authorities, may not be held. than next year.

Previously, Parliament had met for the last time on Wednesday evening before it was dissolved. “Over the past sixteen months, our government has done its best to improve the situation and has served the nation with full conviction,” Mr. Sharif said in a final address to his cabinet. “This country cannot progress until there is national unity,” he also said.

The new prime minister must be announced within three days of the dissolution of parliament, according to the Constitution.

In theory, and according to the law, this dissolution gives the interim government ninety days, i.e. until mid-November, to organize elections. But the government coalition has warned that they could be delayed. Data from the latest census taken in May was finally released last weekend, and the election commission says it needs time to redraw electoral district boundaries, a sore point for several political parties.

The economy in the doldrums

Whether it is delayed or not, the poll is expected to go ahead without the country’s most popular politician, Imran Khan. Pakistan has been experiencing political turmoil since this former prime minister was removed from power in April 2022. Latest event: the septuagenarian was sentenced to three years in prison on Saturday for corruption, after months of repression against of his party, the Pakistan Justice Movement (PTI).

Lawyers for Mr. Khan, who began serving his sentence in a dilapidated cell, according to his defense, appealed his sentence on Tuesday. If not overturned, this court ruling will bar him from running in the next election.

It is not known what path the PTI will take with its leader behind bars. But the two usually conflicting dynastic parties, which lead the outgoing coalition, should continue to weigh. This coalition, however, obtained little popular support during the eighteen months that it spent at the head of the fifth most populous country in the world.

Pakistan’s economy is still in the doldrums despite a new bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with crippling foreign debt, runaway inflation and widespread unemployment.