“It will not be an actual election. The decision-makers will not only keep the PTI out of elections but also a few leaders of PPP and PML-N,” he said in an interview with Spot Light with Munizae Jahangir that was aired on Aaj News on Tuesday. “The leadership of Balochistan’s nationalist parties will also be kept out of the election.”

PTI chief Imran Khan will be disqualified from contesting elections in a similar fashion to that of the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif in 2018, he claimed, adding that the former ruling party is facing the same thing the PML-N faced five years ago.

While reviewing the current political environment, Mir said that the PML-N had become the PML-Q of 2002 when it was decided that the PML-Q would form government in the Centre.

But he believed that the “establishment” would not be able to use the Supreme Court as it has been doing in the past.

“Even if Nawaz Sharif has made arrangements with someone, the Supreme Court is not part of it. CJP Qazi Faez Isa will give a verdict on merit,” Mir added.

Journalist Suhail Warraich said that all tactics are being employed to put PTI down and give ground to PML-N similar to 2018 when the latter was on the receiving end.

“It is a ground reality. Match fixing happens in every election in Pakistan. Although, rigging on a mass scale on the election day is difficult, however, so much is done before the election that changes the results,” he added.

He alleged that PML-N was contained in Punjab in the 2018 elections as the party lost its strongholds in the province. “Now work is being done on strong and known [PTI] candidates to break them away.”

Responding to a question regarding Sharif’s return to Pakistan, he said that ground realities suggest that elections will be held after the former prime minister’s homecoming and that he will be the next prime minister.

“These two things I believe were agreed before his departure from London,” Warraich added.