Backdropped by a banner showing Pakistan's slain leader Benazir Bhutto, motor vehicles are stopped during a traffic jam, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Saturday, March 16, 2013. Pakistan's government is passing a remarkable milestone in a country that has faced three military coups -- it's the first democratically elected body to finish its term. But after years of militant attacks, worsening electricity blackouts and faltering economic growth, the political party that took office five years ago on a wave of sympathy following the assassination of iconic leader Benazir Bhutto will likely find it more difficult this time to win voters to its side. (AP Photo/Nathalie Bardou)
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Backdropped by a banner showing Pakistan's slain leader Benazir Bhutto, motor vehicles are stopped during a traffic jam, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Saturday, March 16, 2013. Pakistan's government is passing a remarkable milestone in a country that has faced three military coups -- it's the first democratically elected body to finish its term. But after years of militant attacks, worsening electricity blackouts and faltering economic growth, the political party that took office five years ago on a wave of sympathy following the assassination of iconic leader Benazir Bhutto will likely find it more difficult this time to win voters to its side. (AP Photo/Nathalie Bardou)
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In this Wednesday, March 13, 2013, photo, Pakistan's ousted Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani waves outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad, Pakistan after submitting an appeal to quash his five-year disqualification, for the upcoming elections. Pakistan's parliament is passing a remarkable milestone in a country that has faced three military coups -- it's the first democratically elected legislative body to finish its term. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
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In this Jan. 31, 2013, photo, Pakistani parliamentarians pose for an official photograph after completing their five-year tenure, outside the National Assembly in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistan's parliament is passing a remarkable milestone in a country that has faced three military coups -- it's the first democratically elected legislative body to finish its term. (AP Photo)
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In this Monday, March 11, 2013, photo, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, expresses solidarity with his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari after inaugurating the Pakistan-Iran Gas Pipeline project, in Gabd, Iran. President Asif Ali Zardari has shown a remarkable ability to hold together a warring coalition government whose members threaten to quit every few months or so. Pakistan's parliament is passing a remarkable milestone in a country that has faced three military coups -- it's the first democratically elected legislative body to finish its term. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
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FILE - In this Feb, 6, 2009 file photo, Pakistan's nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan waves outside his residence in Islamabad, Pakistan. Khan, who made Pakistan into a nuclear power and later took responsibility for leaking atomic secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya has started a new movement aimed at shaking up the country's political scene ahead of upcoming national elections. (AP Photo/B.K.Bangash, File)
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FILE - In this Sunday, April 8, 2012 file photo, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, right, waves while arriving at the Palam Airfield with his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, left, in New Delhi, India. Zardari, the elder, will not be participating in the upcoming election, but as co-head of the Pakistan People’s Party, which led the last government, he will be a key figure. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the only son of the president and his late wife, is set to carry the torch for the Bhutto family political dynasty in Pakistan. Though he is too young to participate in the upcoming election himself, he will likely pay a key role as co-head of the PPP with his father. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das, File)
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FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011 file photo, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif gestures during a press conference in Islamabad, Pakistan. Sharif, the head of the main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, hopes to become prime minister for the third time. His party, which appeals to an industrialist base and is strongest in central Punjab province, represents the main challenger to the Pakistan People’s Party, PPP, to form the next government. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen, File)
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FILE - In this Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012 file photo, Pakistan's ex-cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan, center, is surrounded by his supporters as he arrives to lead what organizers are calling the "peace march," in Islamabad, Pakistan. Khan who founded Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or the Movement for Justice Party has appealed to a largely young, urban constituency tired with the current crop of politicians and the corruption that plagues the system. Though analysts doubt his party can win enough seats to form the next government his party could affect who comes out on top in the elections. (AP Photo, File)
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Pakistani police officers stand guards on a shipping container placed to block the supporters of Pakistani Sunni Muslim cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, to enter into high security area Red Zone during an anti government rally in Islamabad, Pakistan Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013. Thousands of Pakistanis fed up with political leaders they say are corrupt and indifferent rallied in the Pakistani capital Tuesday, as the fiery cleric who organized the rally called for the government to resign and for his followers to remain on the streets until then. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Pakistan to hold nationwide elections May 11
ISLAMABAD (
AP) — Pakistan will hold nationwide parliamentary elections on May 11, said a presidential spokesman on Wednesday. The vote is expected to produce the country's first transition from one civilian government to another.
The president approved a proposal finalizing the May date for the upcoming election, said Farhatullah Babar.
The Pakistani parliament completed its term Saturday, making it the first democratically chosen body to finish a full five-year term in a country that has seen three military coups and persistent political turmoil since its 1947 independence from Britain.
The ruling Pakistan People's Party has been dogged by rumors that it would be deposed or forced to call early elections ever since it assumed office in March 2008. Its five-year term in office has been marked by near-constant political crises and a rocky relationship with the country's powerful military.
But President Asif Ali Zardari has shown a remarkable ability to hold together a warring coalition government whose members threaten to quit every few months or so. Zardari is the widow of Benazir Bhutto, the iconic PPP leader who returned from exile in 2007 only to be killed later that year during a campaign rally.
Zardari has managed a balance between the need for U.S. assistance amid a deteriorating relationship between the two countries and rising anti-American sentiment.
Washington needs Pakistan's help fighting al-Qaida and stabilizing neighboring Afghanistan, but a series of recent scandals have severely damaged ties. CIA contractor Raymond Davis shot and killed two Pakistani men in Lahore in early 2011, the U.S. unilaterally killed Osama bin Laden in the city of Abbottabad later that year and American forces accidentally killed 24 Pakistani troops along the Afghan border in 2012.
The Zardari-led coalition government has had some success fighting Islamist militants along several fronts in Pakistan's northwest but it has been under tremendous pressure domestically due to rising inflation, a faltering economy and an acute energy crises.
Now that the parliament and government are dissolved, a caretaker government will run the country and oversee elections.
But so far the ruling PPP and the main opposition party headed by Nawaz Sharif, who served as prime minister twice, have failed to come up with a consensus candidate for prime minister. An eight-member committee consisting of equal members from both parties is meeting Wednesday to come up with a candidate they each agree on.
If the committee fails, the responsibility will then fall to the Pakistan Election Commission. The caretaker government is designed to ensure impartiality in the upcoming vote.
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