(AP) Pakistan is holding parliamentary elections this week but many voters are disillusioned and wonder if the balloting can bring any real change in a country mired in political feuding, a seemingly intractable economic crisis and resurgent militancy.

Forty-four political parties will compete on Thursday for a share of the 266 seats in the National Assembly, or the lower house of parliament, with an additional 70 seats reserved for women and minorities.

After the election, the new parliament will choose the country’s next prime minister.

If no party wins an outright majority, then the one with the biggest share of assembly seats can form a coalition government.

Many experts agree that in Pakistan’s political landscape today, there really seems to be only one top contender for the post of premier — Nawaz Sharif, a three-times former prime minister who has returned to the country and been absolved of past convictions.

Sharif came back last October after four years of self-imposed exile in London to avoid serving prison sentences. Within weeks of his return, his sentences were thrown out and his convictions overturned.

His archrival, former Prime Minister Imran Khan, a cricket hero turned Islamist politician who was ousted in April 2022, is behind bars and banned from contesting the vote.

And although Khan has significant grassroots following, it’s the intensity of his downfall and the ease of Sharif’s return that have led many to believe the outcome has been already decided.