By Katie O'Malley | February 8, 2024

Pakistan (MNN) — Pakistan’s general election reaches its climax today as people go to the polls for national as well as provincial leaders amid recent tensions. On Wednesday a pair of explosions near the offices of two election candidates in Baluchistan killed more than two dozen people and wounded dozens more.

Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says, “Our people on the ground are telling us there’s two main parties that are kind of leading the pack, but neither one of them have the energy or the majority, in and of themselves. So there’s probably going to be some form of a coalition.”

One party is the Pakistan Muslim League. “Under their leadership in the past, churches have been burned to the ground, pastors [and] believers have been killed. They really welcome this kind of mob mentality vigilante justice, that there’s no accountability.”

Meanwhile, the People’s Party tends to represent those considered lower class. It also stands for minority groups, which in Pakistan includes Christians.

“When it comes down to the impact on the Kingdom, from a Christian perspective worldview, we are looking at two of the most isolated countries in the world when it comes to the Gospel,” Kelley says of Pakistan and its neighbor Iran.

“God is doing great things in Pakistan as well [as Iran] right now. Anytime that the Gospel is moving, there’s going to be adversarial attempts to diminish that. I think right now Christians are in the crosshairs of everything going on in Pakistan and Iran.”

Pray for new government leaders in Pakistan who will protect the rights of minority groups.

“We need to be praying that anytime there’s transition in countries like this, it’s [an] opportunit[y] for the gospel,” says Kelley.

Click here to learn more about Unknown Nations’ work to reach the ends of the earth with the hope of Christ.

Header photo of Election Commission of Pakistan, 2018 courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/pakistans-2024-general-election-came-in-the-wake-of-violence/