ISLAMABAD, July 26: Vote counting in an election marred by allegations of fraud and militant violence has been tediously slow, yet from the outset cricket star Imran Khan and his party have maintained a commanding lead.

Election officials said it will be Thursday evening before an official count confirms Pakistan’s next government. But before even half the votes were counted, Khan’s leading rival Shahbaz Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League — the party of jailed ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif — rejected the vote, generating fears that disgruntled losers could delay the formation of the next government.

The winner will face a crumbling economy and bloodshed by militants, who sent a suicide bomber to a crowding polling station in the southwestern city of Quetta to carry out a deadly attack that killed 31 people.

The parliamentary balloting marked only the second time in Pakistan’s 71-year history that one civilian government has handed power to another in the country of 200 million people. Yet there have been widespread concerns during the election campaign about manipulation by the military, which has directly or indirectly ruled Pakistan for most of its existence.

In a tweet on his official account, Pakistan’s military spokesman Gen. Asif Ghafoor called accusations of interference “malicious propaganda.”

The tweet, which featured a collage of pictures of Pakistanis handing military personnel at polling stations flowers and elderly women kissing soldiers, Ghafoor wrote that the “world has seen your love and respect for Pak Armed Forces & LEAs (law enforcement agencies) today. You have rejected all kinds of malicious propaganda.”

The military deployed 350,000 troops at the 85,000 polling stations. More than 11,000 candidates vied for 270 seats in the National Assembly, and 577 seats in four provincial assemblies.

The attack outside the polling station in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, underscored the difficulties the majority Muslim nation faces on its wobbly journey toward sustained democracy.

Baluchistan also saw the worst violence during campaigning earlier this month, when a suicide bomber struck at a political rally, killing 149 people, including the candidate Siraj Raisani. Another 400 were wounded. IS claimed responsibility for that attack. Baluchistan has been roiled by relentless attacks, both by the province’s secessionists and Sunni militants who have killed hundreds of Shiites there.

Throughout the night, Khan supporters celebrated outside party offices countrywide. Most of the revelers were young men, who danced to the sound of beating drums draped in Tehreek-e-Insaf party black and green-colored flags. Khan, who is a cricket legend of almost mythical proportions, has appealed to the youth with promises of a new Pakistan. According to the United Nations, 65 percent of Pakistan’s 200 million people are under 30 years old.

Cameras followed Khan into the polling station where he voted on Wednesday. But video images of his smiling image marking his ballot landed him in trouble with the Pakistan Election Commission. Its spokesman Nadeem Qasim told The Associated Press that Khan violated constitutional provisions on “the secrecy of the ballot paper and his vote could be disqualified because he cast his ballot in front of TV cameras.”

Moeed Yusuf, associate vice president of the Asia Center at the Washington-based US Institute of Peace, said the top challenge for the next government will be the economic crisis.

“The new government is going to be in an unenviable position, and especially Imran Khan, as he is not the preferred prime minister for Pakistan’s two traditional chief patrons, China and the U.S,” he said.

Khan has been an outspoken critic of the US-led war in neighboring Afghanistan as well as China’s massive investment in Pakistan, which has racked up millions of dollars in debt to Beijing.

Khan is also likely to be met with trepidation in neighboring Afghanistan, where he has been vocal in his opposition to the US-led invasion that followed Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. AP

ISLAMABAD, July 25: A suicide bomber struck outside a crowded polling station in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta, killing 31 people as Pakistanis cast ballots Wednesday in a general election meant to lead to the nation’s third consecutive civilian government.

The attack in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, also wounded 35 people and several were reported to be in critical condition, raising concerns the death toll could rise further, according to hospital official Jaffar Kakar, a doctor.

A witness who was waiting to cast his ballot, Abdul Haleem, said he saw a motorcycle drive into the crowd of voters just seconds before the explosion. Haleem’s uncle was killed in the explosion.

“There was a deafening bang followed by thick cloud of smoke and dust and so much crying from the wounded people,” he told The Associated Press.

Baluchistan also saw the worst violence of the election campaign earlier this month when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a political rally, killing 149 people, including the candidate Siraj Raisani. Another 400 were wounded. Voting in that constituency has been suspended

Citing security concerns, the election commission announced that internet and cellphone services in several districts in Baluchistan have been suspended. Election commission secretary Babar Yaqub told reporters late Tuesday that threats against polling stations, staff and even candidates have been received.

Hours earlier, militants lobbed grenades and opened fire at a military convoy escorting election staffers and voting material in Baluchistan’s district of Turbat, killing four troops. At the request of the election commission, Pakistan’s military is deploying 350,000 troops countrywide outside and inside polling stations.

Also on Wednesday, police said a shooting between supporters of two opposing political parties killed one person and wounded two in a village near the northwestern city of Swabi.

Early voting was heavy at some polling stations in Islamabad, the capital, and also in the Punjab provincial capital, with several political party leaders standing in line to cast their ballots. Local television reported scattered incidences of police arresting people with pre-marked ballots,

Rights groups have warned that a rancorous election campaign and widespread allegations of manipulation imperil the wobbly transition to democratic rule and raise the specter of bitter challenges of fraud after the elections.

The unprecedented participation of radical religious groups, including those banned for terror links but resurrected and renamed, has also raised fears that the space for moderate thought may shrink further in Pakistan.

Attacks against minorities have increased in recent years.

One candidate, Jibran Nasir, an independent from Pakistan’s financial hub of Karachi, received death threats and even had a fatwa, or religious edict, issued against him after he refused to condemn Ahmadis, reviled by mainstream Muslims as heretics because they believe the messiah promised in Islam arrived over a century ago. Pakistan in 1974 declared Ahmadis non-Muslims.

“I am speaking for the millions of Pakistanis who are too afraid to confront religious bigotry,” Nasir said in a telephone interview. He also said that no arrests have been made of those who threatened him.

The leading contenders in Wednesday’s polling are former cricket star Imran Khan and his right-of-center Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, or PTI, and the right-of-center Pakistan Muslim League, the party of disgraced Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is in jail serving 10 years on corruption charges. His younger brother Shahbaz Sharif took control of the party.

The third-largest party in the running is the left-leaning Pakistan People’s Party, headed by Bilawal Bhutto, the son of late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, assassinated by Pakistan’s Taliban militants, whom she had vowed to eradicate.

Election officials say more than 11,000 candidates are vying for 270 seats in Pakistan’s law-making Lower House of Parliament and 577 seats in four provincial assemblies.

The 85,307 polling stations opened at 8 a.m. and will continue for 10 hours, an hour longer than in the 2013 polls. Voting for two parliamentary seats and six seats in provincial assemblies has been postponed due to attacks on candidates or disqualifications.

There are 105.96 million eligible voters in Pakistan, with 59.22 million men and 46.73 million women.

Pakistan’s election commission reminded candidates their elections will be nullified if the female voter turnout does not reach 10 percent. The requirement was imposed after the 2013 elections, when several areas banned voting by women, mostly in Pakistan’s religiously conservative northwest. Some candidates were elected without a single woman marking a ballot.

The commission issued its reminder Tuesday after veteran rights activist Tahira Abdullah said local jirgas, or councils, of elders from 60 areas of the country, representing 16 different constituencies, had signed agreements banning women from voting.

Results will trickle in after polling ends, with the outcome expected early Thursday, according to election officials.

International and domestic election observers will monitor voting. The European Union Election Observation Mission has 120 monitors at polling stations in major centers across Pakistan, with the exception of Baluchistan, where a suicide bomber earlier this month killed 149 people, including a candidate.

Under Pakistani law, separate seats are reserved for women and for non-Muslim minorities, which comprise 4 percent of the population. AP

ISLAMABAD, July 25: After an acrimonious campaign, polls opened in Pakistan on Wednesday to elect the country’s third straight civilian government — a first for this majority Muslim nation, which has been directly or indirectly ruled by its military for most of its 71-year history.

Rights groups have warned that the rancorous campaign and widespread allegations of manipulation imperil the wobbly transition to democratic rule and raise the specter of bitter post-election challenges of fraud.

Early voting was heavy in some polling stations in Islamabad, the capital, and in the Punjab provincial capital, with several political party leaders standing in line to cast their vote.

The unprecedented participation of radical religious groups, including those banned for terrorist links but resurrected and renamed, has also raised fears that the space for moderate thought may shrink further in Pakistan.

Attacks against minorities have increased in recent years. One candidate, Jibran Nasir, an independent from Pakistan’s financial hub of Karachi, received death threats and even had a fatwa, or religious edict, issued against him after he refused to condemn Ahmadis, who are reviled by mainstream Muslims as heretics because they believe the messiah promised in Islam arrived over a century ago.

In Pakistan it is a crime for an Ahmadi to call himself a Muslim after a 1974 constitutional amendment declared them non-Muslims.

“I am speaking for the millions of Pakistanis who are too afraid to confront religious bigotry,” Nasir said in a telephone interview. He also said that no arrests have been made of those who threatened him.

The leading contenders in Wednesday’s polling are former cricket star Imran Khan and his right-of-center Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, or PTI, and the right-of-center Pakistan Muslim League, the party of disgraced Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is in jail serving 10 years on corruption charges. His younger brother Shahbaz Sharif took control of the party. The third-largest party in the running is the left-leaning Pakistan People’s Party, headed by Bilawal Bhutto, the son of late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, assassinated by Pakistan’s Taliban militants, whom she had vowed to eradicate.

Election officials say more than 11,000 candidates are vying for 270 seats in Pakistan’s law-making Lower House of Parliament and 577 seats in four provincial assemblies. The 85,307 polling stations opened at 8 a.m. and will continue for 10 hours, an hour longer than in the 2013 polls. Voting for two parliamentary seats and six seats in provincial assemblies has been postponed due to attacks on candidates or disqualifications.

There are 105.96 million eligible voters in Pakistan, with 59.22 million men and 46.73 million women.

Pakistan’s election commission reminded candidates their elections will be nullified if the female voter turnout does not reach 10 percent. The requirement was imposed after the 2013 elections, when several areas banned voting by women, mostly in Pakistan’s religiously conservative northwest. Some candidates were elected without a single woman marking a ballot.

The commission issued its reminder Tuesday after veteran rights activist Tahira Abdullah said local jirgas, or councils, of elders from 60 areas of the country, representing 16 different constituencies, had signed agreements banning women from voting.

Results will trickle in after polling ends at 1300 GMT, with the outcome expected early Thursday, according to election officials.

Citing security concerns, the election commission announced that internet and cellphone services in several districts in southwestern Baluchistan province had been suspended. Some of the worst violence during campaigning occurred in Baluchistan, where earlier this month a suicide bomber devastated a political rally, killing 149 people, including the candidate, Siraj Raisani. Voting in that constituency has been suspended.

Election commission secretary Babar Yaqub told reporters late Tuesday that threats against polling stations, staff and even candidates have been received.

His statement came just hours after militants lobbed grenades and opened fire at a military convoy escorting election staffers and voting material in Baluchistan’s district of Turbat, killing four troops. At the request of the election commission, Pakistan’s military is deploying 350,000 troops countrywide outside and inside polling stations.

International and domestic election observers will monitor voting. The European Union Election Observation Mission has 120 monitors at polling stations in major centers across Pakistan, with the exception of Baluchistan, where a suicide bomber earlier this month killed 149 people, including a candidate.

Under Pakistani law, separate seats are reserved for women and for non-Muslim minorities, which comprise 4 percent of the population.

Voter turnout in 2013 was 54.8 percent. AP

ISLAMABAD, July 23: As Pakistan heads into parliamentary elections this week, the country’s minorities are looking for better representation and a voice that will speak up for them in what rights groups warn is in an increasingly intolerant atmosphere in this Muslim-majority nation.

It’s an uphill struggle for Pakistani Christians, Sikhs, Ahmadis and others. Minority religions make up just 4 percent of Pakistan’s 200 million people; Shiites account for about 15 to 20 percent of the Muslim population.

The country’s complicated electoral system allots minorities and women a small number of “reserved” seats, based on their parties’ gains at the polls.

But for the rest of the seats — both in the 342-seat National Assembly, the law-making lower house of parliament, and the four provincial legislatures — members of minority groups are increasingly choosing to run as independent candidates, without affiliation to any political party.

The minorities’ major concern ahead of Wednesday’s vote has been the plethora of radical religious and sectarian groups that have resurrected themselves under new names and fielded candidates for the polls — including Sunni extremists who promise to rid Pakistan of Shiite Muslims.

Other radical parties have campaigned on promises to enforce Pakistan’s controversial law on blasphemy, which carries the death penalty and which has allowed for the prosecution of anyone deemed to offend Islam. Frenzied mobs have killed at the mere suggestion that an act of blasphemy was committed.

Pakistan “is becoming more and more intolerant of minority rights,” said rights activist I.A. Rehman, a founding member of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

He is urging the government to “make sufficient effort to ensure minorities can cast their votes.”

THE CHRISTIANS

Garbage is piled by the roadside and cinderblock homes have flimsy curtains instead of doors in Rimshah, a squatters’ settlement on the outskirts of Islamabad.

Years ago, scores of Christian families settled here when a mob of Muslim men, enraged over an alleged act of blasphemy by an 11-year-old Christian girl, tried to kill her and drove them out of their homes.

They named the slum Rimshah, for the 11-year-old girl with Down’s syndrome who was eventually cleared of charges of tearing up pages of an Islamic religious book.

Michael Rose, an outspoken advocate of the Christian community, which numbers about 3 million in Pakistan, campaigns in Rimshah for Asif Shahzada, an independent Christian candidate.

Rose says that independent minority candidates are the best hope of getting Christian grievances heard. Minority representatives chosen on the “reserved” seat system tow the party line and rarely raise their community’s legitimate concerns, he says.

“I jumped into this race only for my community,” says Shahzada, looking around the slum. “We have so many problems, no education, no health care, no jobs. We don’t even have enough water.”

THE SIKHS

Radesh Singh is one of about 200,000 Sikhs living in Pakistan, mostly in the conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province along the border with Afghanistan. The Sikhs are easily identifiable because of their tightly wound and often colorful turbans, and because they share the surname Singh.

Singh said attacks by the Taliban and lately also the Islamic State group have forced thousands to leave the province, including his son. The radicals, Singh says, are killing both fellow Muslims and members of minority groups.

He is campaigning as an independent candidate in Peshawar, the provincial capital, and refuses to leave.

“I wanted to show that a poor man can fight, run his own campaign and compete against these rich candidates … who take the poor people’s votes but then give them nothing in return,” said Singh.

On a street lined with small shops in his neighborhood, he stops at each store, run by his Muslim neighbors, and is greeted with a smile. An elderly neighbor, Allah Mir, gave Singh a gentle hug, shook his hand and promised him his vote.

“I don’t care about his religion,” Mir said. “I care only that he is a good man.”

THE HINDUS

Hindus make up Pakistan’s second-largest minority, with more than 2 million, living mainly in southern Sindh province where they are among the poorest.

Many live as indentured slaves on the estates of some of Pakistan’s largest landowners, working on the farms.

The Hindus also suffer widespread discrimination because of the decades-old rivalry between Pakistan and neighboring India, a majority Hindu nation.

Whenever relations between the two countries deteriorate, the treatment of Pakistani Hindus gets worse. Rights activist also routinely raise concerns about forced conversions of Hindu girls to Islam.

Veeru Kohli was born a slave but fled bondage, walking for three days until she found offices of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan to help her. She then returned to the landowner to recover her children and free eight other families.

Kohli is now running as an independent candidate.

If she wins, she will become the second Hindu woman in parliament in Pakistan. In March, Krishna Kumari, a member of Pakistan People’s Party, was elected to the 104-seat Senate, the upper house of parliament — becoming the first Hindu woman elected, albeit in a vote by parliament members and not a popular election.

THE SHIITES

Though Muslim, Pakistan’s Shiites have suffered enormous losses, with hundreds slaughtered at the hands of radical Sunni Muslims who consider Shiites heretics and believe it is their religious duty to kill them.

However, unlike other minorities, Shiites in Pakistan are not allocated any special seats in parliament and can run either on their party’s ticket or as independents.

THE AHMADIS

Ahmadis revere the 19th century founder of their Muslim sect, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, as a messiah, challenging the basic tenet of Islam that Mohammad is the final prophet.

Since Pakistan declared them non-Muslims in 1974, their numbers are difficult to gauge; they are believed to number several hundred thousand. Hundreds have been killed by zealots and their places of worship have been targeted; thousands more have fled Pakistan.

Saleem Uddin, a spokesman for the community, says Ahmadis plan to boycott Wednesday’s elections after being put on a separate list of registered voters.

“It means we are not the same as other Pakistanis,” said Uddin. “Why?” AP

ISLAMABAD: Police arrested former Pakistani military rulerPervez Musharraf overnight at his home in the capital, where he had holed up following a dramatic escape from court to avoid being detained, officials said Friday.

Musharraf fled Islamabad High Court in a speeding vehicle Thursday morning after a judge rejected his bail and ordered his arrest in connection with a case involving his decision to fire senior judges while in power. It was a new low in Musharraf’s troubled return from self-imposed exile last month to make a political comeback in the upcoming parliamentary election.

Police arrested Musharraf overnight and presented him before a judge at Islamabad District Court on Friday morning, said police officer Mohammed Khalid. Local TV footage showed Musharraf entering district court in Islamabad amid a heavy security detachment of police and paramilitary soldiers.

The district court judge instructed police to keep Musharraf in their custody for two days and then present him before an anti-terrorism court, said one of his lawyers, Malik Qamar Afzal.

Officials have declared Musharraf’s home on the outskirts of Islamabad a jail, which is allowed under the country’s law, and he will be held there under house arrest, said police officer Mohammed Rafique.

Musharraf’s legal team has said they will challenge the arrest order in the Supreme Court on Friday.

The decision by the police to arrest Musharraf ended an awkward situation in which the former military ruler was being protected by security forces while holed up in his house, but none of them made a move to detain him. They were likely awaiting orders from senior officials trying to figure out how to deal with a delicate situation.

Pakistan’s government has been reluctant to wade into the controversy surrounding Musharraf since he returned from self-imposed exile last month, especially given his position as a former chief of the army, considered the most powerful institution in the country.

His return also presents complications for the current army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who may have to decide whether to intervene to protect Musharraf or watch him be prosecuted. If Musharraf is sent to prison, it would be the first time an army chief has been put behind bars in the country’s 65-year history.

Musharraf seized power in a coup in 1999 and spent nearly a decade in power before being forced to step down in 2008. He returned last month after four years in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai despite legal challenges and Taliban death threats.

But he has received paltry public support, and earlier this week was disqualified from running in the May 11 election because of his actions while in power. A court has also barred him from leaving the country.

The upcoming vote is historic because it will mark the first time in Pakistan that parliament has completed its full five-year term and handed over power in democratic elections. The country has experienced three military coups and constant political instability since it was founded in 1947.

Thursday’s case before the Islamabad High Court involved Musharraf’s decision to dismiss senior judges, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, when he declared a state of emergency and suspended the constitution in 2007. He was concerned the judges would challenge his recent re-election as president, and cited the growing Taliban insurgency in the country as justification for the state of emergency.

The man who filed the petition before the Islamabad High Court, Aslam Ghuman, also accused Musharraf of placing the judges under house arrest.

Musharraf’s spokeswoman, Aasia Ishaq, denied he issued an arrest order, even though the judges were clearly confined to their homes. Government officials at the time claimed they restricted the movement of the judges for their own security.

Musharraf’s crackdown on the judges outraged many Pakistanis, and fueled a nationwide protest movement by lawyers that eventually resulted in him stepping down under the threat of impeachment.

Before he returned to the country, Musharraf was granted bail for the judges’ case and two others, meaning he could not be arrested when he landed — a feature of Pakistan’s legal system. But the bail agreement was temporary.

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf and his security team pushed past policemen and sped away from a court in the country´s capital on Thursday to avoid arrest after his bail was revoked in a case in which he is accused of treason.

Local TV broadcast footage of the dramatic scene in which Musharraf jumped into a black SUV and escaped as a member of his security team hung to the side of the vehicle. He sped away to his large compound on the outskirts of Islamabad that is protected by high walls, razor wire and guard towers.

This week has gone from bad to worse for Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999 when he was serving as army chief and spent nearly a decade in power before being forced to step down in 2008. He returned last month after four years in self-imposed exile to make a political comeback despite legal challenges and Taliban death threats, but has since faced paltry public support.

A court in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday disqualified Musharraf from running in the parliamentary election scheduled for May 11, likely squashing his hopes for political comeback.

The case before the Islamabad High Court on Thursday involved Musharraf´s decision in 2007 to detain senior judges, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, when he declared a state of emergency and suspended the constitution.

The decision outraged many Pakistanis, and further fueled a nationwide protest movement by lawyers that eventually resulted in Musharraf stepping down under the threat of impeachment.

Lawyers shouted, “Look who is running, Musharraf is running!” as Musharraf fled the court Thursday.

Before he returned to the country, Musharraf obtained pre-arrest bail for the judges´ case and two others, meaning he could not be arrested when he landed — a feature of Pakistan´s legal system.

The Islamabad High Court refused to extend that bail on Thursday and ordered his arrest, said police officer Ali Asghar.

The court previously agreed to extend his bail in the case for six days on April 12. It´s unclear why they chose to reject it this time.

Policemen were deployed at the court who could have detained the former military ruler, but he managed to escape, said Asghar.

Many of the policemen and paramilitary soldiers at the court did not seem to try to prevent Musharraf from leaving as he pushed past them.

Musharraf´s lawyer, Ahmad Raza Kasuri, complained that the court didn´t listen to their arguments.

“It is a one-sided decision,” said Kasuri.

The former military ruler´s legal team will contact the Supreme Court on Thursday to challenge the decision, said the secretary general of Musharraf´s party, Muhammad Amjad.

Musharraf´s decision to flee the court could put the Pakistani army in an awkward situation. The former general is protected by paramilitary soldiers who officially report to the Interior Ministry, but are headed by senior army officers.

Ali Dayan Hasan, the director of Human Rights Watch in Pakistan, called on the military authorities protecting Musharraf to comply with the court´s order and ensure that he presents himself for arrest.

“General Musharraf´s act today underscores his disregard for due legal process and indicates his assumption that as a former army chief and military dictator he can evade accountability for abuses,” said Hasan in a statement sent to reporters.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Lawyers say judges have disqualified Pakistan’s former military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, from running in the upcoming parliamentary election.

Musharraf applied to run from four different districts, which is allowed in Pakistan.

Over a week ago, judges reviewing Musharraf’s nomination papers disqualified him from running in three districts because he suspended the constitution while in power. But a judge in the remote northern district of Chitral gave Musharraf approval to run.

Lawyer Taufiq Asif says he challenged the decision in Chitral because of Musharraf’s actions while in office and a three-member appellate tribunal disqualified the former military ruler from running on Tuesday. Musharraf can appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Musharraf returned to Pakistan last month after over four years in self-imposed exile to run in the May 11 election.

ISLAMABAD: The re-election prospects for Pakistan’s outgoing ruling party are looking even tougher after indications emerged this week that one of its star vote-getters — the young son of assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto — will play a less prominent role in the campaign because of security concerns and political infighting.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari — widely referred to by his first name to distinguish him from the rest of the family — is the only male heir to the political dynasty started by his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who served as president and prime minister but was overthrown in a coup and executed in 1979. The father’s legacy was continued by his daughter, Benazir Bhutto, until her death in a gun and bomb attack in 2007.

The party the eldest Bhutto founded, the Pakistan People’s Party, portrays itself as a champion of the rural poor. The slain father and daughter are considered by their followers to be martyrs, and the Bhutto name still inspires strong loyalty, especially in the family’s ancestral province of Sindh. Bilawal’s father and Benazir Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, is the current president.

The party’s performance leading the ruling coalition over the last five years is less fondly remembered, and the PPP faces a tough battle in the May 11 parliamentary election. The country is grappling with a weak economy, pervasive energy shortages and a resurgent Taliban insurgency.

Bilawal, 24, is too young to run in the election, but he was expected to play a key role in rallying voters.

But three party officials close to Bilawal told The Associated Press that he recently left for Dubai because of security concerns — the Pakistani Taliban is suspected of killing his mother — and would not make many public appearances at rallies, instead addressing crowds by video link. The first such rally would be on April 4 in Sindh, unofficially marking the beginning of the party’s campaign, they said.

Two other party officials told the AP that Bilawal, who serves as PPP chairman, pulled back from the campaign because of political differences with his father’s sister, Faryal Talpur, who also plays a key role in the party. The party officials all spoke on condition of anonymity late Tuesday because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a political science professor at Pakistan’s Lahore University of Management Sciences, said it’s possible Bilawal decided to reduce his profile because the PPP is predicted to be beaten by the main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N. That would allow him to save his full entry into the political scene until the next election in five years, when the PPP might have a better chance of winning.

The president’s spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, denied the reports of infighting among the family members Wednesday and said the political heir’s trip outside the country was routine. He said he did not know whether Bilawal would attend the rally on April 4, which marks the anniversary of the death of his grandfather, or address the crowd remotely.

“We don’t share travel plans of our party leadership because of security reasons,” Babar told the AP. “Surely, he will be participating in the election campaign. When and where, it is a matter of details, and we cannot share it at this point of time.”

Bilawal’s sister, Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, tweeted, “Bilawal WILL be part of the election campaign but will not be leading it.”

Bilawal’s grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto founded the Pakistan People’s Party in the 1960s and served as both the country’s president and prime minister in the 1970s. He was eventually hanged in 1979 after Gen. Zia ul-Haq seized power in a military coup.

Benazir Bhutto twice served as prime minister in the 1980s and 1990s but never completed a full term. Her governments were dismissed both times under the cloud of corruption allegations by presidents who were close to the country’s powerful army. She was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack on Dec. 27, 2007, shortly after returning from self-imposed exile to participate in national elections.

After her death, the Pakistan People’s Party rode a wave of public sympathy to garner the most seats in the 2008 elections, and Asif Ali Zardari was elected president. But the popularity of both the party and the president has fallen significantly since then.

Biawal was made chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party after his mother’s death but mainly played a background role until recently while he completed his studies at Oxford University in Britain. He delivered a speech in Sindh at the end of December that analysts said marked the beginning of his political career.

Even if he does play a major role in the campaign, it remains to be seen how well he can rally the party’s largely poor, rural constituency in Sindh since he has lived most of his life outside the country and is still working on his command of Urdu, the national language.

“I think the way the PPP’s strategy was evolving, Bilawal was the trump card,” said Rais. “The tough challenge that the People’s Party faces will get much tougher in the absence of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.”

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.st