ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan is due for a general election by November, but signs increasingly suggest the polls could be delayed, after the government already put off provincial ballots this year in defiance of court orders.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is due to transfer the reins to a caretaker administration in the coming days, gave the clearest signal yet this week, when he told a TV interviewer that the next election must be based on the 2023 digital census. This would involve a cumbersome, monthslong process of setting new constituencies and voter rolls that is all but certain to run past the deadline.
