Today is a big day in Pakistan, and the country is holding it's 12th general elections, to elect a new government.

With multiple crises plaguing the nuclear-armed country of 241 million, this year's Pakistani election is super important for the country.

Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz will likely emerge as the single-largest party and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party as a distant second followed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of Imran Khan and other parties, The News reported.

While former prime minister Imran Khan remains in jail, Nawaz Sharif is tipped to emerge as the main face for the prime minister's post. Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI candidates are contesting the polls independently after the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the election commission to deprive the PTI of its iconic election symbol cricket 'bat.'

Nawaz Sharif, 74, will be eying the prime ministership for a record fourth time in Thursday's election. The contest also involves the PPP of Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who has been declared as the party's prime minister face.

But whoever wins the February 8 elections will find a daunting task ahead due to the dwindling economy and deteriorating security situation. Last year, Pakistan narrowly averted a default when the International Monetary Fund or IMF provided a $3 billion short-term loan. Economic experts believe that the new government would need an urgent new IMF program on more stringent conditions.

Pakistan’s over two decades-old fight against terrorism is also unravelling as the rebels have resurged since 2021 after the Afghan Taliban came to power. The new government will find it tougher to deal with the militancy of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and Baloch nationalists.

On its eastern border, fresh tensions have risen after Islamabad accused India of running an assassination campaign inside Pakistan that New India has rejected completely. India on January 25 strongly rejected Pakistan’s assertion of evidence implicating Indian agents in the targeted killings of two Pakistani citizens on its soil, dismissing it as “false and malicious anti-India propaganda”.