Five significant issues to watch for in 2023 1. Political instability, polarization, and election year Politics will likely consume most of the country's time and attention in 2023, just as it did in 2022. The country's turn to political turmoil last spring has not ended. a scathing vote in Parliament last April removed Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan from office. The instability and polarization have only deepened since: Khan led a grassroots opposition movement against the incumbent coalition government and the military, organizing a series of mass protests across the country throughout the year. The power struggle continues into 2023. While the incumbent government did not accept Khan's request for a snap election, the mandatory national elections must be held by October this year. It would be in the government's political interest to hold them back for as long as possible as they try to emerge from Pakistan's severe economic crisis and weak domestic performance (their diplomatic approach to politics). Foreign policy has been better maintained, but this may not matter for the election). The past year has cost him valuable political capital, and Khan's party has won a massive victory in a series of by-elections held in July and October. According to Wajid khan, the state has tried to manipulate it. Khan and his party into the lawsuits, drawing on a familiar playbook used against opposition politicians in Pakistan, albeit with limited effect, with court involvement. Khan's party still controls two of Pakistan's four provinces, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and the incumbent federal government's (extralegal) efforts to wrest power from him in Punjab, province, the biggest, failed (thanks to the court). The year is off to a spectacular start, with Khan's party kicking off the process of dissolving the Punjab and KP assemblies this month to pressure the federal government into snappy elections.