Pakistan to hold delayed general elections on February 8: election body

Pakistan will hold delayed national elections on February 8 next year, the election commission has announced, as the country grapples with overlapping political, economic and security crises.

"It was unanimously decided that the election will be held on Thursday, February 8," the Election Commission Pakistan (ECP) said in a statement on Thursday, after its members met with President Arif Alvi.

The president's office confirmed the date in a statement.

A caretaker government has been running the South Asian country since parliament was dissolved on August 9.

Polls were supposed to have taken place within 90 days of parliament's dissolution but the ECP said it needed time to redraw constituency boundaries following the latest census.

The announcement comes after the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the commission and the president to agree to a date before the next hearing on Friday, in response to several challenges about the delay.

Political chaos

Pakistan has struggled through months of political chaos, with former prime minister Imran Khan - still wildly popular - barred from contesting elections and locked up in custody.

The former international cricket star, convicted of graft but being held ahead of a trial for leaking state secrets, waged a campaign of defiance against the powerful military after being ousted from power last year.

It was met with a widespread crackdown of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.

With Khan out of favour with the establishment, three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif returned from self-imposed exile last month to lead his Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) to polls.

He left the country four years ago to seek medical treatment in the United Kingdom, part way through a jail sentence for graft, for which he has been granted bail since returning.

The most pressing issue for voters is a biting economic downturn, with Pakistanis struggling through a record devaluation of the rupee and soaring inflation.

On Thursday, a team from the International Monetary Fund arrived in Islamabad to discuss the next tranche of a loan that helped rescue the country from near default.

The country has also witnessed a dramatic spike in militant attacks, mainly in its border regions with Afghanistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.