When Pakistan holds an election, there’s an established pattern to how things generally play out.
The military selects a preferred candidate (in this case Nawaz Sharif), and then discredits/exiles/imprisons the main challenger (in this case, Imran Khan). The vote is held and the military’s preferred candidate wins. It’s no wonder they are known inside the country as “the generals’ elections”.
This time, things didn’t go quite according to plan. Despite Khan having been safely locked up, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party came out on top – though not with an overall majority, sparking allegations of serious vote-rigging from PTI supporters.
In this week’s edition, our correspondents in the region, Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Shah Meer Baloch, explain how the military had tried and failed to stifle the PTI and its voters into submission before last week’s vote.
How will this all play out? On Tuesday (after the Weekly went to press), it was confirmed that Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N party would after all form the government, in a complex coalition with the Pakistan People’s party (PPP). Shehbaz Sharif, Nawaz’s younger brother who is known to be close to the military, is likely to be prime minister, with the PPP co-chair Asif Ali Zardari as president.
So did the generals get their way after all? Maybe not. A marriage of convenience between two weak political parties, in defiance of the popular vote, merely illustrates the shaky state of Pakistan’s democracy, and seems unlikely to last for long.
On behalf of the GW team, we hope you enjoy this week’s edition – here are some of the other highlights you can look forward to when the magazine arrives.
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Five essential reads in this week’s edition
1
Spotlight | Is Britain running low on royals?
With King Charles undergoing cancer treatment and his heir, William, focusing on his young family after his wife Catherine’s recent illness, the slimmed-down royal family is struggling to plug the gaps in the engagement diary, writes Caroline Davies.
2
Photography | The world views of Sebastião Salgado
The celebrated Brazilian photojournalist reflects on a life spent capturing defining images of the natural world.
3
Heath and wellbeing | Sweet nothing
Viv Groskop travels to the Netherlands to investigate the concept of niksen, the Dutch antidote to burnout.
4
Feature | Not going out
Is a misspent youth a thing of the past? Gaby Hinsliff investigates how teens and twentysomethings became the homebody generation.
5
Culture | The real Yoko
Artists and critics explain why, throughout a career spanning six decades, Yoko Ono has always stayed on top.
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What else we’ve been reading
I was drawn in by the story told by Kevin Adkisson, part of the Von Erich wrestling family in 1980s Texas. Readers who are planning to see The Iron Claw, named after the family’s signature move and starring a bulked-up Zac Efron, might want to look away now (spoiler alert!) but Adkisson’s resolve after years of the kind of heartbreak that would leave most people on the canvas is something to behold. (Read the review here.) Neil Willis, production editor
Alongside striking photography by Misha Friedman, our central and eastern Europe correspondent Shaun Walker’s remarkable interviews with Ukrainians who collaborated with their Russian invaders and ended up in prison highlighted the moral complexities of war and the consciences of those caught up in it. Graham Snowdon, editor
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Other highlights from the Guardian website
• Audio | Is Joe Biden too old to be the US president?
• Video | The bitch and fold: the Australian political manoeuvre practised by Albanese, perfected by Dutto
• Gallery | War, peace and goalkeeping pandas: Bert Hardy’s nostalgic Britain – in pictures
• Interactive | Mapped: how Gaza war led to violence spreading around the Middle East
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Get in touch
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the magazine: for submissions to our letters page, please email weekly.letters@theguardian.com. For anything else, it’s editorial.feedback@theguardian.com
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