Washington, Feb. 9 -- Pakistan's emerging election results have deepened the political crisis in India's most important neighbour, with implications for the civil-military relationship, the future of democracy and the dire economic situation internally, and Islamabad's relationship with Washington DC, New Delhi and the rest of the world externally.

At the root of it is a simple question. Will a bruised House - aka the Army led by General Asim Munir - succeed in engineering a political outcome it wants by keeping Imran Khan's loyalists out of the governance structure? Or will the voice of the electorate whose preferences for a ruling arrangement that has a strong role for those loyal to the Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) be accommo...