Tensions are on the rise in Pakistan with hundreds arrested and suicide bombings killing two party leaders.
Voters go to the polls on July 25 amid allegations interfering judiciary, military and intelligence agencies are favouring ex cricketer Imran Khan over the incumbent party.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) warned there were “ample grounds to doubt” the legitimacy of the elections and criticised “blatant, aggressive and unabashed attempts to manipulate the outcome of the upcoming elections.”
The group added: “The level of army interference and political engineering is unprecedented.”
Pakistani voters will be called to cast their ballot to elect a new prime minister and fill a total of 342 parliamentary seats.
There are three main contestants but HRCP claimed forces are actively working to help the election of former cricketer Imran Khan, leader of PTI who is allegedly close to the military.
His centrist party is calling for the creation of a welfare state.
So far, the country’s media have experienced a massive crackdown in the run up to the election, and military forces have been accused of secretly backing the campaign of Mr Khan while targeting his political opponents.
The HRCP also argued in a statement that there is a “public perception that all parties have not been given equal freedom to run their election campaigns.”
Mr Khan has denied any links to the military and fired back, condemning the harassment of election candidates.
Other parties running for the post are the centre-right conservative PML-N, which led the country until 2017 when its leader and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was accused of corruption, and the left-wing PPP.
Tensions have starkly risen since Mr Sharif was jailed for 10 years last week.
The political leader claimed the military were aiding a “judicial witch-hunt” against the PML-N, aimed at preventing it from ruling five more years.
The PML-N government, one of the few led by a civilian, was marked by a stark hostility from the military.
Mr Sharif’s party said hundreds of its activists have been detained in his family’s political stronghold of Lahore, the capital of Punjab province.
And after a pro-Sharif rally in the city last week, Pakistani authorities launched an anti-terrorism investigation against PML-N leaders and opened criminal cases against nearly 17,000 party members.
The military has often ruled the country during its 71-year of history.
Pakistan is also being riddled by a series of deadly terrorist attacks.
On the same day of the arrest of the PML-N leader, 150 people died in a suicide bombing targeting the convoy of a political candidate, Siraj Raisani, head of the Balochistan Awami Party, who was also killed.
Four more were killed on the same day in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in an attack to another politician, and earlier in the week at least 20 people, including Haroon Bilour, leader of the Awami National Party, died in a suicide attack in the northwest city of Peshawar.
This string of murders have led the military to announce the deployment of 371,000 troops to ensure a “fair and free” election.
But this decision has been attacked as dangerous for the free exercise of the vote.
The HRCP expressed “serious reservations about the extraordinary powers accorded to security forces — ostensibly to ensure the integrity of the polls”.
It added the military deployment “has blurred the line between civilian and non-civilian responsibility for the electoral process.”