Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday scrapped lifetime bans on contesting elections for people with criminal convictions, paving the way for Nawaz Sharif to run for prime minister for a fourth time. Sharif's party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), is considered a front runner to win elections scheduled for Feb. 8, with his main rival, former prime minister Imran Khan, in jail and barred from contesting for five years. In his ruling, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who headed a seven-member panel of judges, said the life bans "abridge the fundamental right of citizens to contest elections and vote for a candidate of their choice". The court's decision was six to one in favour of overruling a previous 2018 decision that imposed life bans on politicians convicted under certain provisions of the constitution. For in-depth analysis on the lifting of the lifetime election ban, FRANCE 24's François Picard is joined by Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, Author, Political Scientist, and Senior Fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.
