Pakistan’s 2024 election, held on February 8 after two years of political turmoil and a months-long delay, was both marred and hopeful. Here’s what to know about the run-up to the election, election day, and where the country stands now.This election had been expected to yield a clear winner: former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who had returned from four years of exile in London last October. Before the election, Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party (PML-N) was favored by the military, and the scales had been tipped heavily in its favor. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan, whom the military had backed until he was ousted from office in April 2022, has been in prison since August 2023 and was disqualified from running for office this election cycle. Khan was sentenced the week before the election to decades in prison in three separate cases, on charges ranging from leaking state secrets to unlawful marriage.