The leading contenders are former cricket star Imran Khan and his right-of-centre Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party (PTI) and the right-of-centre Pakistan Muslim League, the party of disgraced Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Sharif is in jail serving ten years on corruption charges and his younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, has taken control of the party.
Wilson Chowdhry from the British Pakistani Christian Association, told Premier News Hour: “Imran Kahn has openly said he would not change the blasphemy laws and insure that it’s enforced.
“That blasphemy law has been a tool or discrimination and persecution for Christians since 1987.”
Pakistani politician Imran Khan, chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, speaks to media after casting his vote at a polling station for the parliamentary elections in Islamabad, Pakistan,
The unprecedented participation of radical religious groups, including those banned for terrorist links but resurrected and renamed, has also raised fears the space for moderate thought may shrink further in Pakistan.
Wilson added: “The tragedy is that for the first time in any election in Pakistan, no Christian candidates have been picked by any of the mainstream parties for the national assembly. We will be bereft of a voice whoever we vote for.”
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