In the first episode of the Year of Elections podcast series, host Sulaiman Hakemy looks at Pakistan, where 241 million people are about to vote.

Pakistan is a nuclear power and one of the most populous countries in Asia, and is mired in a political and economic crisis.

The run-up to the elections, scheduled for February 8, has seen one of its leading figures, former prime minister Imran Khan, imprisoned, as a host of political parties gear up to set a new direction – or not – for the country's political future.

We interview Husain Haqqani, a prolific journalist, academic and political activist who spent three years as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, and Johann Chacko, who is a regular South Asia columnist for The National and researches politics and extremism in Pakistan at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.