Stuck in their gullets.

"Pakistan becomes the only Asian country to be downgraded to an 'authoritarian regime', registering the greatest deterioration of any country in the region classified as 'Australia and Asia'," as "It has been reclassified from a 'hybrid regime' to an 'authoritarian regime', Geo News reported." ET. It is obvious that results of the recent general election were blatantly manipulated as, "Jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan...slammed the powerful establishment and his political opponents by terming the country's election process as the 'Mother of All Rigging' and demanded that the people's mandate that was 'stolen' from his party must be returned." DH. One extremely rare politician refused to accept his victory. "A senior Pakistani politician who won provincial elections in the commercial hub of Karachi last week has given up his seat saying the vote was rigged in his favor." Reuters. But the leaders of the two major parties have no such shame. "The agreement between Bhutto Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of three-time Premier Nawaz Sharif ends days of uncertainty and negotiations after the Feb. 8 elections produced a hung national assembly." Reuters. In addition, "Liaqat Ali Chattha, a senior Pakistani bureaucrat,..resigned from his position, citing his responsibility for alleged election rigging. Chattha accused the chief election commissioner and the chief justice of being involved in malpractices during the recent election." BT. No one will dare to name the main culprit - the Pakistan Army. "Delayed in two provinces for the better part of a year - with general polls written off for an extra three months - all it took the voter was nine hours." "Nine hours, too, to get their vote right," and "Then, also, comes the fact of who the people actually voted for - a persecuted party, its jailed leader, thousands of detained workers, scores of criminal cases, rolling blackouts in the media, and police raids without end." "It was strange, and it lasted just a few moments. But it felt like democracy." Dawn. "In often dysfunctional Pakistan, citizens have typically seen the army as not just the only functional and trustworthy institution, but also the repository, interpreter and defender of the country's founding values." "For the first time, we have real evidence that an explicitly anti-military stance is also a winning platform." "The power of the narrative Khan carefully built during the years before he came to power cannot be underestimated." "In saying that it is the generals who have thwarted Pakistan's aspirations for decades, Khan has touched - if unreflectively and cynically - upon a previously unspeakable truth," wrote Mihir Sharma. All Pakistani leaders have homes in London (National Herald), including Imran Khan (ET). However, by choosing to stay in prison in defiance of the army and not running away to London, as others before him have done, he may cause a major headache for the generals. Can't swallow him nor spit him out. Stuck in their collective gullets, as it were.