The run-up to Pakistan's general election on Wednesday has been marred by allegations of pre-poll rigging, intimidation and the muzzling of the media, writes Gul Bukhari, who was briefly kidnapped by masked men in Lahore's army cantonment area in June.
Until a few months ago, protest chants accusing Pakistan's powerful military of terrorism were rarely heard in the country's main cities.
But they came to central Lahore on 13 July, the day former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam returned from London to begin their prison sentences.
By last Friday, the chant – “ye jo dehshat gardi hai, is ke peehchay wardi hai” (“the military uniform is behind this terrorism”) – could be heard on the streets of Rawalpindi, not far from military headquarters.
In a stunningly brazen move, a hearing for a seven-year-old narcotics case involving Mr Sharif's PML-N party stalwart Hanif Abbasi was moved forward from August to 21 July, and a life sentence handed down at 23:30 on Saturday, four days ahead of the general election, effectively knocking him out of the race.
Mr Abbasi was the frontrunner in his constituency against Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who served in both Gen Zia and Gen Musharraf's governments and is an ally of Mr Sharif's arch-rival Imran Khan, who leads the PTI party. Any focus on the merits of the case was overshadowed by outrage at the timing of the verdict.
Thousands attended rallies to welcome Nawaz Sharif back, but the media…
