Pakistan’s Opposition Campaigns in Shadows Under Fear of Arrest

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan—At a secret political gathering last week,about two dozen party workers huddled around a cellphone to hear from an opposition candidate who has been trying to avoid arrest while campaigning.

“You must get the vote out," he said on the video call, his voice fading in and out because of a malfunctioning speaker connected to the phone, as tea and samosas were passed around in the windowless room. “That way, we will foil their plans."

Two days later, the venue of the meeting in the northern city of Rawalpindi was ransacked by security forces.

The candidate, Muhammad Basharat Raja, is a member of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party. He and other party members are facing arrest, threats and a de facto ban on campaigning in large parts of the country ahead of Thursday’s election.

Raja previously served as a minister in the Punjab provincial government. Now he is facing dozens of charges, including terrorism,stemming from his party’s involvement in opposition protests last year. “We are restricted to campaigning inside four walls," he said in a phone interview after his party meeting. “We’ve never seen an election like this."

Polls show Khan, who has been in prison since last year, remains one of the country’s most popular politicians, but is himself barred from running. His party is still contesting. Last week, he was convicted and sentenced for leaking official secrets, corruption,and marrying hiswifein contravention of Islamic tenets, for not waiting three months after her divorce.He denies wrongdoing.

Khan was ousted as prime minister in a parliamentary vote in 2022, after tensions emerged between him and Pakistan’s powerful military. After being pushed out, he held fiery rallies across the country