Pakistan general elections on May 11

, March 20: The Pakistani general elections will be held on May 11, the country's election commission declared on Wednesday. Presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said President

had approved the date for the nationwide parliamentary elections.

The polls are significant for it will be first time in the history of Pakistan that an elected government would hand over power to its successor government by the means elections. The last PPP-led government served its full tenure of five years, something which the country has never seen in its 66 years of history.

The country's military has ruled approximately half the period since 1947, staging coups to topple civilian governments thrice. The last time a military coup took place was in October 1999 when Pervez Musharraf overthrew the Nawaz Sharif regime.

The Pakistani parliament was dissolved on the midnight of March 16 as the government's mandate expired. A caretaker government would be set up to oversee the country's functioning till the next election. A parliamentary committee has been asked to decide on the leader of the caretaker government till Friday after politicians failed to reach an agreement earlier.

Meanwhile, the fundamentalist groups have intensified violent attacks in various parts of the country to derail the democracy and the authorities will have a tough challenge to ensure that the elections are observed peacefully.

OneIndia News