Recent events have made it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to take Pakistan's election (on February 8) seriously. It’s not just the rat-a-tat sentencing of Imran Khan in the cipher, Toshakhana and iddat cases, but the entire process of decimating his party and debilitating its electoral prospects — by those who helped to propel the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) into power in 2018. What’s more, to underline the absurd aspect of the exercise, the same chubby chappie who was — not for the first time — stripped of the right to hold political office back then, is now more or less guaranteed the prime ministerial post for a fourth time.