What is at stake in the Pakistan polls?

In the first episode of the Year of Elections podcast series, host Sulaiman Hakemy looks at Pakistan, where 241 million people are about to vote.

Pakistan is a nuclear power and one of the most populous countries in Asia, and is mired in a political and economic crisis.

The run-up to the elections, scheduled for February 8, has seen one of its leading figures, former prime minister Imran Khan, imprisoned, as a host of political parties gear up to set a new direction – or not – for the country's political future.

We interview Husain Haqqani, a prolific journalist, academic and political activist who spent three years as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, and Johann Chacko, who is a regular South Asia columnist for The National and researches politics and extremism in Pakistan at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.