A former cricket player and an ex-prime minister will face off in a historic election this weekend as Pakistan elects a new leader, NBC News reported. When Pakistanis head to the polls on Saturday, it will mark the first time in the nuclear-armed country’s 65-year history that a legislature has completed its term, paving the way for the possibility of a peaceful transition of power from one civilian government to the next. Of the nation's 90 million potential voters, 40 million could be voting for the first time. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was deposed by a military coup — replaced by General Pervez Musharraf in 1999 — and then exiled, is running against Imran Khan, a sports legend in Pakistan. In a campaign punctuated by violence — including the gunpoint kidnapping of a leading politician's son at a political rally on Thursday — uncertainty still prevails.
