In January 2013, thousands of protesters camped by the Parliament, in Islamabad, as they claimed electoral reforms before the general elections of May 2013. The demonstrators marching from Lahore, answered the call of Tahir-ul-Qadri, 61, a Pakistani Muslim cleric who claimed that the government was corrupted and incompetent and that politicians didn’t care much about the real problems of the country : electricity and gaz shortage, unemployement, healthcare, education and security. His message received a large echo between the protesters, who promised to camp till their demands get answered.

Voices accused Qadri, who was recently back to Pakistan after spending years in Canada, to be used by the Pakistani Army to weaken the influence of the civilian government before the elections. After four days, Qadri, finally settled an agreement saying that a caretaker Prime Minister shall be appointed and that the National Assembly shall be dissolved at any time before March 16th, 2013 so that the elections may take place within 90 days.