With less than two months to go before the general elections, Pakistan and its core institutions and political parties are in disarray. The public doesn’t know what to think or believe or expect in a sea of fake news, unproven allegations, political U-Turns and hollow promises of milk and honey. Worse, the independent media has been gagged.

Shortly after general elections were announced by the outgoing PMLN government, naysayers inexplicably began to raise their heads. The “independents” of Balochistan, who comprise the provincial government, moved a resolution in parliament seeking a delay because “the people of Balochistan were due to go on Hajj at that time” – never mind that only a few thousand Baloch perform Hajj every year! Then the MQM factions in Karachi expressed the same sentiment because they wanted to challenge the delimitation of constituencies ordered by the Election Commission of Pakistan, never mind that they disagree on everything else under the sun. As if on cue, a judge of the Islamabad High Court accepted petitions challenging the ECP’s delimitation exercise and restrained electoral action on that score. Finally, the PTI Chief Minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa weighed in with the same demand without really bothering to offer any excuse. Now, after the perception of delayed elections has gathered momentum, we are assured by the Chief Justice of Pakistan that the Supreme Court will not brook any delay and the chief military spokesman has told everyone that his institution has no vested interest in any such development.

Meanwhile, the exercise to appoint consensual provincial chief ministers has been derailed in all four provinces. The ECP has stepped in to appoint a retired judge as KPK Chief Minister and is likely to do the same elsewhere. This is a sad reflection of the political wasteland in which the mainstream parties cannot even find a handful of “neutral” persons to manage a six-week transition. The joker in the pack is the PTI whose nominations have been so farcical as to border on the absurd. It has then been obliged by public opinion to keep shuffling the pack, but only to come up with losers again and again.

It is also a season of slinging mud and heaping abuse. Reham Khan is leading the pack against ex-spouse Imran Khan, whose recent betrothal to a shrouded Pirni has generated shock waves in state and society. The juicy tidbits on offer about Imran and his pack of wolves have provoked another round of salivation amongst his critics and his voters are having a hard time swallowing his behavior.

Meanwhile, the Sharifs are digging their heels in to firm up their dynasty. Now the two sons of Shahbaz Sharif, namely Hamza and Salman, are eagerly lined up behind him while Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, Mariam, is pulling the crowds and setting the pace. The scene is perfectly set for bitter squabbles to break out over the spoils of office if the PMLN wins in Lahore and Islamabad.

That is, of course, a big if. Contrary to the machinations of the Miltablishment, the PMLN is alive and kicking. This is mainly thanks to the Nawaz-Mariam counter campaign narrative of victimization that seems to have yielded fruit. But the “development” mantra of Shahbaz has also given its share of rich dividends. A perception is gathering steam, based on media surveys, that the PMLN could well romp across the finishing line, leaving the PTI-PPP coalition in desperate straits. Indeed, it is this very assessment that is fueling speculation of a delay in elections.

The Miltablishment, too, is in a bit of soup. It sees conspiracies everywhere, never mind that it is a conspirator par excellence itself and its spooks are veritably under every bed. The Pakhtun Tehreek Movement is a conspiracy hatched in Afghanistan to malign the military, never mind that its four demands (demine the terrain, rehabilitate the displaced population, produce the disappeared, and soften the check posts) are reasonably legitimate. Miltablishment critics on social media are manipulated by gangs of foreign troll-manufacturers and local propagandists, never mind that its own troll brigades are mercilessly targeting minor and major critics alike. The abduction of Gul Bukhari, a critic, is a prime example of misplaced concreteness that has provoked a backlash. It is bad strategy also to accuse a clutch of journalists of nurturing foreign agendas in “defaming” the military, never mind that most journalists are either cowering in fear or shamelessly toeing the line. Likewise, its policy of nudging “pro-military” Taliban groups to physically assault its PTM critics has misfired because it has raised the specter of “good” Taliban and “bad” Taliban all over again.

The Supreme Court, too, is much sound and fury signifying nothing as far as military matters are concerned. It thunderously ordered the Asghar Khan case to be reopened. Now it has quietly nudged the civilian government to refer the treasonable generals to a court martial under the Army Act. This is passing the buck big time on an important matter of constitutional subversion.

And so it goes on. Ad nauseam.