Two leading parties announce separate coalition plans to help secure a majority needed after Pakistan’s contested polls.
![PTI has announced it will not enter into any coalition with PMLN, PPP and MQM to form government after the February 8 election. [Sohail Shahzad/EPA]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/12022455-1707836034.jpg?resize=570%2C380&quality=80)
Discrepancies with early election results in some districts are causing concern and confusion a day after the vote.
Pakistan’s struggling democracy faces serial crises — political, economic, on the security front, and of legitimacy.
![Members of the polling staff set up a polling station in a school building for the February 8 parliamentary elections, in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, February 7, 2024 [Fareed Khan/AP Photo]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/AP24038500513569-1707357514.jpg?resize=570%2C380&quality=80)
Even with Pakistan’s chequered electoral history, some analysts believe the coming vote might be the most unfree yet.
![Pakistan is set to hold its general election on February 8. [Shahzaib Akber/EPA]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/11922882-1704984623.jpg?resize=570%2C380&quality=80)
In advance of elections, Pakistan’s Supreme Court lifts a ban on people with convictions holding political office.
Sharif returns to Pakistan in hopes of overturning corruption conviction and running for political office again.
The 73-year-old veteran politician, who spent four years in the UK, is seeking a political comeback.
Muhammad Safdar of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party arrested, his wife Maryam Nawaz says.
![Supporters of major opposition political parties including Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) gather during an anti-government rally in Karachi [Shahzaib Akber/EPA]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/h_56432099.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
Asif Ali Zardari charged in two corruption cases, while Punjab government admits case against Nawaz Sharif for treason.
![The cases against Zardari, left, and Sharif, right, came ahead of their political alliance planning an anti-government rally [File: AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/000_Del6222381.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
Imran Khan attacks former three-times premier Nawaz Sharif over the latter’s criticism of country’s powerful military.
![Khan was responding to renewed attacks on the government in recent weeks [AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/000_1WB0GY.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
Court grants jailed Sharif bail on medical grounds, as ailing political leader receives treatment for immune disorder.
Sharif, 69, is being treated at a hospital in Lahore, where medical tests suggest he has a low count of blood platelets.
A year after 2018 elections, thousands of opposition supporters hold rallies across Pakistan against the government.
Anti-corruption judge denies charges he was ‘blackmailed’ into handing former PM seven-year jail term for corruption.
