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It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

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    It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister (OP)


    Salaam

    Change in Pakistan, wonder if he will make a difference?

    here's what we can expect of him

    Even a genuinely reformist candidate in the state has to find some kind of accommodation with the military – but that appeasement also carries the risk that the occupant of the presidential palace will find his middle class followers disillusioned


    It is tempting to see the rise of Imran Khan in Pakistan as a sort of counterpart to the En Marche! phenomenon in France that propelled Emmanuel Macron to power. As Mr Khan enjoys a surge in support for his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Pakistan Movement for Justice, or PTI), and every chance of winning the elections this week, there are some parallels between the young French president and the youthful (though 65-year-old) Mr Khan.

    Mr Khan enjoys a legendary charisma, mostly born of his cricketing prowess, as if Gareth Southgate or Harry Kane were running to be prime minister of Britain. We know him in Britain too as the former husband of Jemima Goldsmith, and thus brother-in-law to her brother Zac.

    He has glamour, then, and a common touch that has seen his party make inroads in the populous Punjab, without which none can rule in Pakistan. Mr Khan has also made radical, reformist noises, pledged to rid his land of endemic corruption, and, more predictably, attacked the United States from its drone powered incursions into the Islamic Republic’s territory.

    Mr Khan, in other words, promises much, and, like Mr Macron, founded and still leads his own political party, which at times is not much more than a fan club for its handsome head. (Though the basically populist PTI is much older than En Marche!)

    Mr Khan and the PTI has done well in recent years in building support, mainly at the expense of two older parties, the vaguely progressive Pakistan Peoples Party, currently led by another member of the Bhutto dynasty, and the more conservative Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N), whose ex-leader, and former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, was recently jailed on corruption charges.

    All, however, is not what it seems. Mr Khan is widely regarded as being an ally of what remains the most powerful institution in the country and the only one, according to Mr Khan, that functions effectively – the army.

    The generals, a ruthless though stabilising force in Pakistani society, are reportedly “pre-rigging” the election in Mr Khan’s favour, including the arrest of Sharif (which is not to say that the move was unjust). It seems that the PTI has suffered less from electoral violence than some of its rivals, including a terror attack at a rally in Baluchistan that killed 149 people.

    Condemning corruption is not consistent with being cosy with the Pakistani army, a body that controls substantial chunks of the economy and has plenty of money and the muscle to get its way, on a national scale and by way of kickbacks and petty corruption and abuse of power. The army has frequently intervened in Pakistani politics, subverted democracy, and collaborated with religious extremists, including the Taliban in the 1980s, when young men such as Osama bin Laden were based there to fight America’s proxy war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

    The legacy of that haunts Pakistan to this day. The result is that even a genuinely reformist candidate in the state has to find some kind of accommodation with the military; but that appeasement also carries the risk that the occupant of the presidential palace will find his middle class followers disillusioned. If he chooses instead to challenge the army, then, like Mr Sharif, he may find himself more or less gently deposed.

    Pakistan’s endemic problems with graft and corruption go a long way to explaining its long-term disappointing economic performance, despite a recent spate of growth. That matters in a predominantly young nation of some 200 million, and which must look with envy at what its neighbours India and China have been able to achieve in recent decades.

    If Mr Khan is unable to do much about the corruption, then he will find the economy works way below its potential, and foreign investors, already wary of political instability and the backwash of violence from Afghanistan, will prefer to put their euros, yen and dollars into India.

    Without economic growth, better public infrastructure, and opportunities, unemployment, health and education are harder to come by. Pakistan’s severe social problems, including the treatment of women and human rights generally, will remain intractable without money, something Mr Khan, a prominent philanthropist, at least shows awareness of.

    Last, Mr Khan is no better placed to deal with tribalism than his rivals. He too enjoys a regional base of support in Punjab, and has had to rely on old-school defecting politicians from other parties and prominent families to bolster his support. He optimistically describes these mercenary politicians as “electables”, though corruptibles might be a better sobriquet.

    Pakistan, then, may change under Mr Khan, and for the better, but it will take formidable skill to make this happen. Mr Khan has won for Pakistan many times on the cricket pitch; he will find his new job a much stickier wicket.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/imran-khan-pakistan-election-prime-minister-muslim-league-army-macron-en-marche-zac-goldsmith-a8460436.html

    An old interview.


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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

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    General Qamar Bajwa and the Limitations of Pakistan’s Deep State

    It would be an understatement to say that the six-year stint of Qamar Bajwa as Pakistan’s army General was eventful. Bajwa’s role as arguably Pakistan’s most powerful man included four prime ministers and several political crises, ending with the army’s carefully polished reputation over decades in tatters.

    He was not the first army commander to wield a disproportionate political influence. Pakistan’s political economy is geared in such a way that even a self-effacing army commander has political clout. However, it was during Bajwa’s stint that the army’s prestige in Pakistani society hit a low perhaps only matched by the division of Pakistan over fifty years ago. More than anything else, Bajwa’s stint symbolizes the limitations of the army as a political actor.

    It is something of a tired cliché by critics and rival states, that in Pakistan the military has a country rather than vice versa. Certainly, as defenders point out, the Pakistani military has usually abstained from the pattern of postcolonial counterparts in Arab and Muslim states of a totalitarian grip on political life.

    Repression for the most part has been more selective than in other military-dominated countries. Indeed, the military is perhaps the only Pakistani state institution that functions more or less professionally. Periods of civilian rule, as in the 1950s, 1990s, and 2010s have often been marked by either factionalism, autocracy, or corruption. Finally, the very real threat posed by India particularly, though not exclusively, since the fascist Bharatiya Janatiya Party first came to power in the 1990s – means that a certain amount of military prerogative is almost unavoidable.

    The problem for both its institutional integrity and for Pakistani political culture is that being “too big to fail” for Pakistan’s survival, the military has grown quite comfortable in its role as a political umpire. The very fact that the military is the only functioning national institution imposes upon it responsibilities for the remainder of the system. Rarely has the military been slow to accept those responsibilities, but it has been far more begrudging in accepting the consequences – particularly when these involve subjecting itself to the jurisdiction of civilian bodies.

    The same civilian parties that officers regularly lambast as either feudalist or corrupt are usually the very same parties that the military itself buttressed at some point or other. Zulfikar Bhutto, whose People’s Party would become such a bane for Rawalpindi in future decades, cut his teeth under Pakistan’s first military regime. Nawaz Sharif’s Noon League (PML-N) was heavily bolstered as a counterweight to the People’s Party by another military regime, before biting the hand that fed it.

    Other regional or ideological parties, such as the ethno-nationalist Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Islamist Jamaat-i-Islami, have similarly oscillated between enmity and alliance.

    Taken against this backdrop, Imran Khan’s Tehreek -e- Insaf Party ( PTI) might be seen as its critics have long alleged, as another backfired project of the military establishment.

    Imran Khan himself hails from Pakistani aristocracy; his uncle, Wajid Burki, was a key lieutenant to Pakistan’s first military ruler Ayub Khan, whose grandson Umar was also a PTI minister. Asad Umar, Imran’s widely respected right-hand man, is the son of Ghulam Umar, who served as security advisor to Ayub’s successor Yahya Khan. PTI heavyweights Jahangir Tareen, a tycoon who served as an influential secretary-general, and Shaukat Tareen are nephews of Akhtar Abdul-Rahman, the top lieutenant of a third military dictator, Mohammad Ziaul-Haq, under whom Pakistan’s intelligence agencies cut their teeth. And much of Imran’s cabinet – including Mohammad Soomro, Abdul-Razak Dawood, Shaikh Rasheed, and Zubaida Jalal – served as ministers in the kitchen cabinet of the most recent military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who had unsuccessfully invited Imran to head that cabinet.

    In retrospect it is now quite clear that Qamar Bajwa also viewed Imran, like the People’s Party and Noon League leaders, as a tool that could be manipulated and discarded; some PTI leaders such as Jahangir duly played along in turning on the party during its ouster from power in April 2022.

    But it would be a mistake to view the PTI as another project of the “establishment”. The party came to power through mass appeal, which has been even clearer in the days since Imran’s ouster, particularly after his credible claim that the United States triggered his removal.

    Enormous rallies in favour of the party and its call for an election have taken Pakistani streets by storm to an extent quite unthinkable a year ago when Imran’s popularity had taken a hit from economic troubles.

    Repression and a considerable amount of media manipulation, not least by media heavyweights whose historical tensions with the military suddenly vanished in spring 2022, have failed to quell this surge in popularity, and few dispute that as of autumn 2022 PTI is the most popular party in the country – hence the rejected calls for an election.

    How can we explain this PTI success? The fact is that PTI’s popularity, however much Bajwa and other establishment figures might have tried to coopt it, always rested on elements that were widely popular in Pakistani society. These included a broad appeal to Islam, and thus the repeated references to Prophetic Medina; rallying against corruption, opposition to India, particularly over its treatment of Kashmir and Muslims more broadly; and a wariness of foreign subservience which in the past two decades has mainly meant subservience to an intrusive and tactless Washington since it occupied Afghanistan.

    Opposition to American airstrikes in Pakistan’s northwest frontier, and more general criticism of the pointless Afghan misadventure, was particularly important in launching Imran’s political appeal during the early 2010s; his party remains particularly strong in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwala, which bore the brunt of this policy. Except for the generally ineffective Islamists, Pakistan’s other parties largely played along with the same American misadventure, thus losing support that instead went to PTI.

    Moreover, these are not only sentiments popular in Pakistani society, but also in the military that hails from the same society. The military has long portrayed itself as a guardian of Pakistan, Islam in at least a broad sense Muslims in the region.

    It would be easy to write this off as opportunistic insincerity, which it no doubt was in many cases, but it was still taken seriously by a large amount of the officer corps since at least the 1980s and is eminently compatible with, if not outright traceable to the “Islamic nationalism” of the original Pakistan movement. Pakistan’s entrance into the nuclear club as its only Muslim member and the widespread influence of religious organizations, particularly the Tablighi Jamaat, in the officer corps helped to cement the idea, which survived Pakistan’s entrance into a war on terrorism that was widely seen as having been forced on it.

    Yet side by side, and in increasing tension with this trend, was Islamabad’s longstanding links with a Washington that no longer needed Pakistan as a Cold War buffer, and increasingly veered toward India.

    Washington’s benign indulgence of India’s nuclear buildup stood in stark contrast with its hostile reception to Pakistan’s response; New Delhi’s strategic and economic interests were almost always prioritized over Pakistan’s; when the war on terrorism began, this took on an ideological dimension as well, with Pakistan pathologized as a hotbed of nuclear risk and terrorism. Musharraf’s answer to this conundrum was to preempt India by ingratiating himself with Washington; ultimately, this failed and led to his ouster, with the People’s Party and Noon League returning to the political centre stage.

    Contrary to the promises of democracy, the following decade of 2008-18 saw an initial return to the pre-Musharraf status quo, with the important qualifier of pressure by the United States, which played off the tensions between the civilian political parties, of which the People’s Party was especially favored in Washington, and the military, which fell in line because of its vulnerability to the insurgency in northwest Pakistan.

    This insurgency had largely sprung from the same alliance with Washington, which had prompted Musharraf to send several performative but disruptive incursions in the region, and stoked the pot for the spread of genuine extremist influence; a cycle began that locked Pakistan into a dependence on the United States.

    To this end the military increasingly looked the other way, if not outright making excuses, when the United States bombarded the northwest; civilian prime minister Yousuf Gilani was even more supportive, trying to obtain American support against the military establishment.

    Much of this flew in the face of public sentiment in Pakistan and the military’s self-image; to bind itself to a United States that was increasingly blatant in support of emboldened India. Indeed, the American-encouraged détente with India, pursued by both military and civilian regimes, backfired miserably; by the 2010s an emboldened New Delhi was backing secessionist movements in Pakistan, cracking down anew in Kashmir, and engaging in a sustained misinformation campaign against its own Muslims, Islam generally, and the Pakistani state in particular.

    When India annexed Kashmir in 2019, Pakistan could offer scant response except largely ignored appeals, largely delivered by the civilian government rather than a historically pro-Kashmir military, to the international community.

    This was a far cry from the independent, however reckless, streak of the 1980s and 1990s, and thus it is no surprise that the fiercely independent streak displayed by Imran, whether in opposition to American campaigns in the region or to India’s in Kashmir, found clear sympathy in a military whose tasks were increasingly at odds with the institution’s long-polished self-image.

    Nor is it a surprise, in such an environment, that military promotion increasingly favoured status-quo figures such as Bajwa who stuck loyally to the contrived, and very American-friendly, canard that terrorism was a bigger threat to Pakistan.

    More worrying was the fact that as the military’s focus turned inward, the definition of terrorism expanded. The Pakistani establishment had been queasy about selective repression, but after the war on terror, this steadily expanded to include heavy-handed air bombing, forced disappearances, torture, and assassinations to an extent unseen since the 1971 Bangladesh war.

    The fact that there was genuine propaganda – often by networks in league with India’s far-right regime or the United States’s plethora of non-governmental organizations – only added to this paranoia and served to valorize this repression as self-defense against “fifth-generational warfare”. Ironically, since Imran’s removal, this repression has been redoubled against PTI supporters, hitherto some of the fiercest defenders of Pakistan’s interests vis-à-vis India.

    It should be noted that the removal of the economically incompetent Noon League on corruption grounds in 2017, which paved the way for PTI’s election win the next year, could not have occurred without the at least tacit acquiescence of Bajwa.

    Easy though it is to forget now, the army commander’s relationship with Imran was initially positive, with both publicly stressing that the army and government were at last on the same page.

    But what can be seen in retrospect is that whereas Imran wanted to comprehensively change the Pakistani political system, Bajwa sought to instrumentalize the prime minister’s popularity and use him as a figurehead to perpetuate the same system, which had been failing under the corruption and incompetence of his predecessors. Throughout 2018-21, it was the PTI’s opposition, foremost among them the Noon League, who lambasted the army for interference in politics.

    The difference was that while PTI genuinely advocated reforms – and has been the target of a violent crackdown after losing power – its opposition, who were treated with comparative kid gloves, openly advocated a return to the pre-2018 status quo. It was this desire for the status quo, including continued vassalage to the United States, that eventually brought them back on the same page as Bajwa.

    Much has been made of the geopolitical aspect of the 2022 tumult. Certainly, Imran was not blameless; his trip to Moscow in search of an alternate energy supplier came on the same day as a long-awaited Russian attack on Ukraine and may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

    Six months earlier, the United States had been driven in ignominy from an Afghan occupation that Imran had long criticized, and there were rumours that the Prime Minister was planning to promote against Bajwa’s wishes the conspicuous spymaster Faiz Hameed, who had made a much-hyped visit to Kabul just as the Taliban emirate were consolidating their control.

    Certainly, in the months after Imran’s ouster PTI supporters viewed Hameed as a sympathetic alternative to Bajwa. But taken together, this was no more than tactlessness, and certainly within the remit of an independent government whose constituency was Pakistan, not the United States.

    Bajwa’s rush to publicly distance himself from the Prime Minister can only be described as craven and the military’s tacit support of a gerrymandered no-confidence vote after a nudge from the United States is much worse. In one sense, it was a continuity of the status quo that has plagued Pakistan for decades – the military navigating between different political groups, ruthlessly snipping one that threatens to get out of line. In another and more important sense, however, it is very different – a regime change that was not merely tolerated or approved, but actively instigated, by a foreign power.

    “I reached the actual leader of Pakistan, General Bajwa, with whom I had engaged many times…” Mike Pompeo, Former US Secretary of State in “Never Give an Inch”.
    Yet with this wilful abdication of Pakistan’s national interests – the economy has only spiralled into decline since Imran’s ouster. The military’s popularity has plummeted after it made common cause with the same networks that it once correctly derided as supportive of Indian misinformation in favour of short-term institutional interests; which is perhaps a natural result of longstanding military supremacy. A common pattern in military-dominated countries, such as Egypt and Sudan, is that while earlier generals might have manipulated politics to protect perceived state interests, the habit kicks in and their successors prioritize military interests, as an end rather than a means, over the state. In the process, the military transforms from being a protector of national interest into a new, eminently unpatriotic, corrupt oligarchy whose primary enemy is perceived as domestic rivals rather than foreign enemies.

    This pattern, which saw the “Free Officers” of Cairo turn into a dictatorial oligarchy decades ago, is now a very real prospect in Pakistan. And once that happens, both Pakistan and its army stand to lose.

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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    Salaam

    Situation is escalating.



    A lot more to be said, Ill post this here in the meantime.

    Blurb

    #Pakistan is in hock to the #IMF, the World Bank, #China, and others. Meanwhile, the military watches events closely, with many fearing another #coup.


    Last edited by سيف الله; 05-12-2023 at 08:52 AM.
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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    Salaam

    Another update, yes its the Guardian but its a decent enough take on whats happening in Pakistan at the moment, (minus the Americans didnt have a hand in removing him of course not!)

    ‘He’s fighting for our future’: Pakistan’s young voters rally behind Imran Khan

    Attempts to jail and harass the cricketer turned politician have only strengthened his support among young people


    In a recent video address to tens of thousands of viewers, Imran Khan waved a piece of paper at the camera bearing the result of a survey of voters. “You see, 70% of the population is now standing with our party,” the politician claimed.

    The authenticity of the data was unclear – Khan is known for hyperbole – but it is widely acknowledged Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party are enjoying a period of unparalleled popularity that has been building since April last year when he was toppled in a vote of no confidence, having served less than four years as prime minister. The last credible poll, back in March, put his popularity at 61%.

    The loyalty felt to Khan among voters has been keenly on display over the past two weeks. After his dramatic arrest last week from an Islamabad courtroom by almost 100 paramilitary officers, the country erupted in violent unrest.

    Though the events of the riots are now disputed – Khan alleges they were a conspiracy to discredit and crack down on his party members, the government says the violence was orchestrated by PTI’s leaders – the ability for Khan to mobilise large-scale protest on the streets was clear. As Khan returned to his home in Lahore after being released on court orders, he was accompanied by thousands of supporters.

    “Leaders like Khan are born once in a century,” said Aftab Ahmed, 18, who left school to serve as a volunteer in Khan’s security force last year. “He is one of the few leaders in the world who wants to build a country based on equality and justice. I am sure Khan will win this fight.”

    One of Khan’s greatest strengths has been his popularity among young voters, who exceed 125 million and account for 44.36% of registered voters. Over the years, he has utilised social media to build up a vast following of young people who see him as the face of “naya [new] Pakistan” and a change from the old dynasties who have ruled Pakistan for decades.

    “The youth are following Khan; he is fighting for us and our future,” said Azra, 20, a student at the University of Karachi. “Khan might have done some corruption but not like the politicians who have done it for decades.”

    She said recent attempts to jail and harass Khan had only strengthened his support among young voters. “Khan has put his life in danger because of us and our prosperity.”

    Since his release from police custody, Khan has made almost daily addresses from his home, broadcast on YouTube and Twitter, calling for early elections and proclaiming himself as Pakistan’s anti-establishment saviour with increasingly critical tirades against the military and government. During every appearance there are tens of thousands of viewers.

    Khan alleges his popularity among the masses is at the root of his legal troubles, with more than 100 cases against him. The former prime minister is calling for elections to take place on a provincial and national level. He alleges the attempts to detain him and a crackdown on his party are part of a plan by Pakistan’s powerful political establishment and the ruling coalition government, led by the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, “to stop PTI forming the next government”. The military leadership and the Sharif government has hit back, accusing Khan of supporting violence and terrorism.

    Yet Khan also faces an impending dilemma. While his anti-military rhetoric has galvanised popular support on the streets, it has also alienated many key members of his party who have faced harassment or have longstanding ties with the army establishment.

    On Tuesday, Shireen Mazari, Khan’s former human rights minister, became the latest high-profile PTI leader to quit the party after being arrested twice, joining a dozen others who have left in the past week. Khan blamed the army for pressuring his party members into “forced divorces”.

    When Khan, 70, entered Pakistani politics in 1996 as a retired celebrity cricket captain with a playboy reputation, he was shunned for his attempts to challenge the status quo. But over the years the charismatic populist who thrived on celebrity grew popular among the middle class, who approved of his drive against corruption and ambitious promises to strengthen democracy and the rule of law. Meanwhile, his embrace of radically conservative Islam and anti-western rhetoric, particularly against the US, garnered him support among influential religious conservatives.

    Malik Farooq, 28, a software engineer in Lahore, said it was Khan’s “vision” for Pakistan that had drawn his support . “Khan does not come from a political dynasty and he does not want to build any dynasty. He is in politics to save us from these corrupt families.”

    In 2018, Khan was elected after promising that he alone could fix Pakistan’s deep-rooted problems. But though he was personally popular, his majority was slim and it came amid allegations it had been rigged in his favour by the powerful military establishment, whose decades-long grip on power was seen as responsible for the rampant corruption and lack of accountability that Khan had vowed to stamp out. Several opposition politicians from the dynasties he had openly criticised had also jumped ship to join PTI and became Khan’s close aides, leading to allegations of hypocrisy.

    Once in power, beholden to the military, most of Khan’s promised reforms never materialised. There was a clampdown on media freedom, extrajudicial abductions by military agencies continued and Pakistan fell further in the transparency index that measures corruption. The economy floundered and state spending soared, while his promises to shun the “lavish” lifestyles of former prime ministers did not become a reality, with Khan since accused of costing the country 1bn rupees for his helicopter rides alone.

    Amid economic strife and allegations of dysfunction, Khan’s support went into decline and it was at historical lows by April 2022. But it was Khan’s removal from power, after dozens of his own MPs defected and he lost a parliamentary vote of no confidence, that would revitalise his popularity.

    Khan swiftly and loudly blamed a US-backed conspiracy for his removal as prime minister. Though the claim was debunked and the US denied it, it played well to rampant anti-US sentiment and riled up support, while his fervent conservative Islamic rhetoric also strengthened his populist support base.

    Khan’s decision to turn against his former ally – Pakistan’s military establishment, accusing them of colluding with the west to bring him down – has also galvanised support among many who are tired of the decades of the army interfering in politics. In recent months, his populist, firebrand speeches against military leadership have drawn thousands on to the streets in support, and sympathy for him only strengthened after he was shot in the leg in November while at a rally, with Khan accusing the military chief of being behind a plot to assassinate him.

    The economic crisis in Pakistan in recent months, with inflation at 36% and people dying in ration queues for food, has also helped Khan politically. The ruling coalition removed subsidies and implemented hikes in the price of food, fuel and power to try to secure a bailout from the International Monetary Fund and avoid default, which has made them unpopular among the masses.

    Taseer Ali, 26, an electrical engineer, was among those who said he believed the US government and the military were involved in toppling Khan. “Khan is trustworthy and visionary,” he said. “Yes, Khan has changed his stance towards the army but he has seen the military’s real face and he knows them well. He has given us hope that he will change this rotten system.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ter-politician

    Worth a listen.



    More comment.





    More perspectives



















    Last edited by سيف الله; 05-25-2023 at 08:55 PM.
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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    Salaam

    Another update.







    The interviewer's question regarding how he treated his opponents using the same state machinery is a very valid point although I'll add the caveat that the notable among them are habitual lawbreakers & were throwing the kitchen sink in their efforts to avoid legal proceedings.

    Where Imran Khan went wrong was nurturing an us vs them narrative despite the fact that there were many interests and elites in his own party that were guilty of the same. Ultimately he has become a slave to this narrative as it prevented much needed political reconciliation.

    Instead of taking shortcuts and relying on compromised political powerbrokers with a history of flip flopping wherever the wind blows - Imran Khan should have prioritized and given opportunities to competent grassroots Pakistanis that shared his ideology & vision for Pakistan.

    More importantly he should have tempered the emotions of his more fervent supporters, stayed the course to demanding elections and avoided the violent protests that gave the current establishment all the opportunity it needed to clamp down on him. Trusted the wrong people too.





    Last edited by سيف الله; 06-01-2023 at 07:33 AM.
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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    Salaam

    Heartbreaking.



    Dr Fawzia meets her sister Aafia Siddiqui after two decades

    Fawzia was accompanied by Clive Stafford Smith

    In a bittersweet reunion that transcended prison walls and spanned two decades, Dr Fawzia Siddiqui finally came face to face with her sister, Dr Aafia Siddiqui, at an undisclosed United States penitentiary.

    Fawzia was accompanied by Clive Stafford Smith, a human rights lawyer who recently helped bring home two Pakistanis from Guantanamo Bay. Smith has already met Dr Siddiqui in prison once.

    The emotionally charged encounter took place under strict security measures, with the sisters only being allowed to see each other through a glass window.

    In a narration by Senator Mushtaq, he revealed that after a long span of 20 years, the meeting lasted over two and a half hours.

    However, during the meeting, Dr Fawzia was not allowed to touch her sister or show her pictures of Dr Afia’s children.

    The sisters were confined to a room separated by a thick glass wall. Dr. Fawzia described Dr Afia as wearing a beige jail dress and a white scarf.

    Dr. Fawzia further shared her concerns about D Afia’s condition, stating that it took nearly an hour for her sister to recount the daily struggles she had been enduring. Afia expressed her longing to meet her mother and children, unaware of the fact that their mother had passed away almost a year ago.

    Disturbingly, Fawzia disclosed that Dr Afia had lost her front teeth due to an alleged assassination attempt inside the prison and bore a scar on her head, which affected her hearing.

    Reports suggest that Dr Afia had been subjected to various torturous techniques to coerce her into speaking about matters she had no knowledge of.

    Who is Aafia Siddiqui?

    Aafia Siddiqui is a Pakistani scientist who was found guilty of attempting to murder and assault American personnel in Afghanistan in 2010. She received a prison sentence of 86 years.

    She consistently claimed her innocence, and the case sparked significant controversy.

    Aafia Siddiqui was born in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1972.

    She studied biochemistry at the University of Karachi and neuroscience at Brandeis University, earning her degrees in the early 1990s.

    Later, she completed a Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2001.

    After completing her studies, she returned to Pakistan and worked as a neuroscientist at Aga Khan University Hospital.

    She also engaged in humanitarian efforts, collaborating with organisations like the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund.

    In 2003, Pakistani authorities arrested Siddiqui due to suspected links with al-Qaeda. Although she was released after a few months, she remained under house arrest.

    Then, in 2008, she went missing from her home in Karachi.

    Aafia Siddiqui reappeared in Afghanistan in 2009 and was subsequently apprehended by US forces in Ghazni province.

    She faced charges of attempting to murder and assault American personnel. In August 2009, she was extradited to the United States.

    The trial commenced in January 2010, and she was convicted two months later.

    The court handed her an 86-year prison sentence.

    Throughout the proceedings, Aafia Siddiqui maintained her innocence and appealed her conviction.

    Currently, she is serving her sentence at the Federal Medical Centre in Carswell, Texas. She will be eligible for parole in 2033.

    https://www.samaaenglish.tv/news/40037198



    Another perspective.

    Last edited by سيف الله; 06-02-2023 at 07:33 PM.
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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    Salaam

    Like to share.





    Blurb

    Although the war on terror is now a distant memory to many Americans, it’s horrible residue remains. The incarceration of Aafia Siddiqui, a brilliant academic and mother of three, has become a symbol of its excesses, of which there were many. She languishes in prison, serving an 86-year sentence for an offence that looks barely credible, the attempted murder of two US officials in Afghanistan in 2008. Her whereabouts before that date remain murky, and so does the welfare of her youngest son Suleman – who has not been seen since her detention in 2003.

    To help us unpick the facts, we have invited Aafias lawyer Clive Stafford Smith to shed light on what happened to Aafia and her children. Clive has helped secure the release of 86 prisoners from Guantánamo Bay and still acts for the remaining numbers. Since the early days of the War on Terror, he has worked tirelessly to force the Americans and other Western powers to adhere to the rule of law. He has sought to uncover the secret prisons and ghost prisoners that stain the reputation of powerful states – who presented their wars in benevolent terms.




    And more comment.



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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    Salaam

    Another update.

    Is Imran Khan going to suffer the same fate as Mohamed Morsi?



    Blurb

    Police arrested Mr Khan at his home this morning, taking him to a prison near the capital Islamabad. He's strongly denied the charges - which could see him barred from running for office in future.



    More comment and analysis

    Imran Khan jailed for 3 years over ‘corrupt practices’

    Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to three years in prison for “corrupt practices,” according to local media.

    The jail term was announced in the “Toshakhana state gift case” by a trial court in the capital Islamabad this morning, without Khan being present.

    Khan was accused of selling state gifts in a case filed by the country’s Election Commission in May.

    The 70-year-old politician is said to have misused his premiership from 2018 to 2022 to buy and sell gifts in state possession that were received during visits abroad and worth more than 140 million Pakistani rupees ($635,000).

    He has denied any wrongdoing, saying the charges are politically motivated.

    Khan’s lawyer Intezar Panjotha said police have already arrested Khan from his residence. “We are filing a petition against the decision in High Court,” Panjotha added.

    Legal experts say a conviction in the case could end his chances of participating in national elections that have to be held before early November.

    In a recorded message to the nation in the event of his arrest, Imran Khan said: “I have one request, one appeal. You should not be sitting quietly in your homes. This effort and struggle that I’m pursuing, it’s not for myself. It’s for my nation, for you, for your children’s future. If you don’t stand up for your rights, you are going to be enslaved and live like slaves. And the life of a slave is not a life. Slaves are like ants on the ground which can’t fly.

    “It was a big dream for Pakistan to have the slogan: ‘La illaha ilallah.’ And what does this mean for Pakistan? That we do not bow down to any humans. La illaha illallah frees us from enslavement to any humans. And our Prophet (pbuh) in Medinah, the first thing he did was to free everybody with justice. This is a war of justice, for your rights and for your freedom.

    “And remember no one will hand you freedom on a plate. The chains don’t just fall off, you have to break them. You have to continue to protest to get your rights. Your fundamental right is to use your vote to select your government so no other group seizes control of this country like the present government has.”

    Meanwhile, the International Human Rights Foundation (IHRF) said it “strongly condemns the unjust imprisonment of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been sentenced to three years in prison following a grossly unfair trial.”

    It added: “This case of lawfare has been orchestrated by the military establishment, working in tandem with its political proxies and allied media, who have silenced opposition by resorting to the arrest and even assassination of dissenting voices, as in the case of Arshad Sarif.

    “The Pakistani deep state have consistently undermined Mr Imran Khan and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, despite their considerable lead in the opinion polls. Indeed, Mr Khan has already been the subject of an assassination attempt, from which he narrowly escaped with injuries.

    “We reiterate the need for the forthcoming elections in a few months’ time to take place unhindered. We call for peace and full respect for human rights. The military authority must bow to the command of the elected civilian power, without interference from outside sovereignties.”

    https://5pillarsuk.com/2023/08/05/im...upt-practices/



    Why Pakistanis are not protesting? (long tweet)

    The very basic definition of the “state” cites its “monopoly on violence”. In most Western countries, this is constrained by civil rights won over many centuries.

    In countries like Pakistan, the state uses violence unobstructed— as happened after 9th May. Blaming unarmed, defenceless citizens for “failing” to protest after facing unabashed state violence for months is unfair and ill informed. This also doesn’t mean there is no “reaction” or that people are “powerless”.

    Two key factors have changed since the last dictatorship, but especially over the last year:

    The first is the awakening of consciousness among ordinary people. The state’s use of propaganda and “soft” rhetoric now falls on deaf ears. Similarly, the “intellectual” class which so long dictated people’s thoughts now stand exposed and discredited. This is the always the first step towards emancipation.

    The second is the development of “hidden resistance”. There is genuine discontent mixed with hopelessness in a large part of the population. They may not protest today, but they aren’t powerless. Armed with renewed consciousness, they will remember their enemies and their victories for ages.

    Don’t blame the victims, call out the brutality of the state. This is a long struggle but the fight put up by PTI supporters over the last 16 months is unmatched in Pakistan’s history.




    Protests in the UK

    Last edited by سيف الله; 08-07-2023 at 07:42 PM.
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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    I hope Khan will not be the second Erdoğan
    It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    “Either seem as you are or be as you seem” Rumi
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  12. #109
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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    Salaam

    Situation is not looking good for him at all. The establishment was well prepared and most of the protests were smothered before they could even begin.

    The only silver lining is that ordinary people are becoming far too aware of how the rigged the game is.



    Imran Khan is exactly what the US hates in a Pakistani politician: principled

    Lack of condemnation from the US over Khan's politically motivated imprisonment only confirms Washington's long history of preferring dictators pliable to its interests


    Last week, the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in a penal colony - accused of financing "extremism" and "rehabilitating the Nazi ideology".

    Quite rightly, the United States and Britain instantly denounced the move, with the US State Department describing the conviction as "an unjust conclusion to an unjust trial".

    Britain's Foreign Secretary James Cleverly claimed the outcome "shows Russia's complete disregard for even the most basic of human rights", piously adding: "Dissent cannot be silenced."

    Three days later, Imran Khan - until last year, the democratically elected prime minister of Pakistan - was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, courtesy of what looked like a kangaroo court, under murky circumstances.

    These two cases are eerily similar. Few believe the charges laid against Navalny. Yet it is vital for President Vladimir Putin to remove him from the political stage - especially with Russian presidential elections scheduled to be held in March 2024.

    Likewise, few believe the corruption charges laid against Khan carry any plausibility. Yet it is vital to get him out of the way ahead of Pakistan's general election, scheduled for this autumn.

    There are dark forces which want both men out of the way. Navalny was subject to an attempted poisoning three years ago, while Khan was wounded in an assassination attempt late last year.

    Let's spit out the ugly truth. Alexei Navalny and Imran Khan are both political prisoners, held on trumped-up charges by the Russian and Pakistan authorities.

    Yet the West is only concerned about the fate of one of them.

    Double standards

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was swift to condemn the additional jail sentence imposed on Navalny, condemning "Russia's conviction of opposition leader Alexei Navalny on politically motivated charges. The Kremlin cannot silence the truth. Navalny should be released".

    No US condemnation of Khan's politically motivated trial.

    British Foreign Secretary Cleverly was guilty of the same double standard.

    Both Britain and America will be well aware that the charges against Khan - profiteering from official gifts - are flimsy.

    In fact, when Khan was in office, he changed the law so that it would be more difficult for politicians to profit from gifts received on foreign visits.

    Previously, if an official wanted to retain an item, they were able to purchase it at 20 percent of the value set by the Toshakhana evaluation committee. During his premiership, Khan raised the fee to 50 percent.

    Khan is probably the least corrupt politician - admittedly not a high bar - in Pakistan's modern history. He represents a reversion to the early school of post-independence politicians, from the Qaid-i-Azam, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, to the country's first president, Iskandar Mirza, whose integrity was absolute.

    None of this matters to the US and Britain, which have always preferred to deal with dictators who are pliable to their interests: Mohammad Ayub Khan, installed in a military coup in 1958; General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, who ruled with an iron fist during the 1970s and 80s; and more recently General Pervez Musharraf, who came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and served as Pakistan's president from 2001 to 2008.

    History proves that the US is structurally hostile to any Pakistani political leader with a democratic mandate.

    Lonely battle

    Khan, to his enormous credit, had set out to challenge the deeply corrupt, dynastic two-party system that has dominated Pakistani politics, through the Bhutto family's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Sharif family's Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), for more than half a century.

    In doing so, he sought to end the country's status as a client state of the US.

    Almost unheard of among recent generations of Pakistani leaders, he stuck to his principles - falling afoul of the US in the process.



    Throughout his long period in opposition, he fought a lonely battle against the US's brutal war on terror, condemning drone strikes and standing up for the rule of law.

    To his credit, Khan remained a thorn in the flesh of the US once in power. But he has paid the price.

    I trace his demise to the fall of Kabul in August 2021, when Khan clashed with Washington over the freezing of Afghan state assets, as well as the American desire for access to Pakistani airspace.

    From that moment, his card was marked. Khan had the impertinence to defy the US: the Biden administration's refusal to denounce his imprisonment amounts to complicity.

    I love Pakistan, have travelled to this beautiful country many times, and have respect for the Pakistan army and its role in maintaining stability after independence 75 years ago. But it is widely reported to be the architect of Khan's downfall.

    Not for the first time, it is allowing itself to be dragged into national politics.

    Deceitful claims

    Imran Khan is today the most popular politician in the country. Polls indicate that he would sweep to victory in any free and fair election.

    Holding an election in Pakistan without Khan would be like putting on Shakespeare's Hamlet without the prince.

    Whoever wins an election without Khan would carry zero political legitimacy, and be despised as the local client ruler, ruling on behalf of the United States.

    As for Khan, he has joined the long list of democratically legitimate national leaders who had the temerity to affect the US by striking out with an independent foreign policy.

    Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected civilian president, spent his final years in jail before dying in court.

    Salvador Allende of Chile dared to win an election that the US wanted him to lose - and was dislodged from office in the most brutal of circumstances.

    Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's first democratically elected leader, who challenged the US by building an alliance of non-aligned nations, ended up in a prison where he was judicially murdered.

    Mohammad Mosaddegh of Iran. Too many others.

    The silence of the US and Britain, both countries which deceitfully claim to believe in democracy, says it all.

    https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinio...ian-principled

    More discussions on the problems Pakistan faces.

    Last edited by سيف الله; 08-10-2023 at 12:11 AM.
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  14. #110
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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    Salaam

    As always, proof is in the pudding. Americans are at it again *sigh*



    SECRET PAKISTAN CABLE DOCUMENTS U.S. PRESSURE TO REMOVE IMRAN KHAN

    “All will be forgiven,” said a U.S. diplomat, if the no-confidence vote against Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan succeeds.

    THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT encouraged the Pakistani government in a March 7, 2022, meeting to remove Imran Khan as prime minister over his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to a classified Pakistani government document obtained by The Intercept.

    The meeting, between the Pakistani ambassador to the United States and two State Department officials, has been the subject of intense scrutiny, controversy, and speculation in Pakistan over the past year and a half, as supporters of Khan and his military and civilian opponents jockeyed for power. The political struggle escalated on August 5 when Khan was sentenced to three years in prison on corruption charges and taken into custody for the second time since his ouster. Khan’s defenders dismiss the charges as baseless. The sentence also blocks Khan, Pakistan’s most popular politician, from contesting elections expected in Pakistan later this year.

    One month after the meeting with U.S. officials documented in the leaked Pakistani government document, a no-confidence vote was held in Parliament, leading to Khan’s removal from power. The vote is believed to have been organized with the backing of Pakistan’s powerful military. Since that time, Khan and his supporters have been engaged in a struggle with the military and its civilian allies, whom Khan claims engineered his removal from power at the request of the U.S.

    The text of the Pakistani cable, produced from the meeting by the ambassador and transmitted to Pakistan, has not previously been published. The cable, known internally as a “cypher,” reveals both the carrots and the sticks that the State Department deployed in its push against Khan, promising warmer relations if Khan was removed, and isolation if he was not.

    The document, labeled “Secret,” includes an account of the meeting between State Department officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu, and Asad Majeed Khan, who at the time was Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S.

    The document was provided to The Intercept by an anonymous source in the Pakistani military who said that they had no ties to Imran Khan or Khan’s party. The Intercept is publishing the body of the cable below, correcting minor typos in the text because such details can be used to watermark documents and track their dissemination.

    The contents of the document obtained by The Intercept are consistent with reporting in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn and elsewhere describing the circumstances of the meeting and details in the cable itself, including in the classification markings omitted from The Intercept’s presentation. The dynamics of the relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. described in the cable were subsequently borne out by events. In the cable, the U.S. objects to Khan’s foreign policy on the Ukraine war. Those positions were quickly reversed after his removal, which was followed, as promised in the meeting, by a warming between the U.S. and Pakistan.

    The diplomatic meeting came two weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which launched as Khan was en route to Moscow, a visit that infuriated Washington.

    On March 2, just days before the meeting, Lu had been questioned at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing over the neutrality of India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan in the Ukraine conflict. In response to a question from Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., about a recent decision by Pakistan to abstain from a United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s role in the conflict, Lu said, “Prime Minister Khan has recently visited Moscow, and so I think we are trying to figure out how to engage specifically with the Prime Minister following that decision.” Van Hollen appeared to be indignant that officials from the State Department were not in communication with Khan about the issue.

    The day before the meeting, Khan addressed a rally and responded directly to European calls that Pakistan rally behind Ukraine. “Are we your slaves?” Khan thundered to the crowd. “What do you think of us? That we are your slaves and that we will do whatever you ask of us?” he asked. “We are friends of Russia, and we are also friends of the United States. We are friends of China and Europe. We are not part of any alliance.”

    In the meeting, according to the document, Lu spoke in forthright terms about Washington’s displeasure with Pakistan’s stance in the conflict. The document quotes Lu saying that “people here and in Europe are quite concerned about why Pakistan is taking such an aggressively neutral position (on Ukraine), if such a position is even possible. It does not seem such a neutral stand to us.” Lu added that he had held internal discussions with the U.S. National Security Council and that “it seems quite clear that this is the Prime Minister’s policy.”

    Lu then bluntly raises the issue of a no-confidence vote: “I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington because the Russia visit is being looked at as a decision by the Prime Minister,” Lu said, according to the document. “Otherwise,” he continued, “I think it will be tough going ahead.”

    Lu warned that if the situation wasn’t resolved, Pakistan would be marginalized by its Western allies. “I cannot tell how this will be seen by Europe but I suspect their reaction will be similar,” Lu said, adding that Khan could face “isolation” by Europe and the U.S. should he remain in office.

    Asked about quotes from Lu in the Pakistani cable, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “Nothing in these purported comments shows the United States taking a position on who the leader of Pakistan should be.” Miller said he would not comment on private diplomatic discussions.

    The Pakistani ambassador responded by expressing frustration with the lack of engagement from U.S. leadership: “This reluctance had created a perception in Pakistan that we were being ignored or even taken for granted. There was also a feeling that while the U.S. expected Pakistan’s support on all issues that were important to the U.S., it did not reciprocate.”

    The discussion concluded, according to the document, with the Pakistani ambassador expressing his hope that the issue of the Russia-Ukraine war would not “impact our bilateral ties.” Lu told him that the damage was real but not fatal, and with Khan gone, the relationship could go back to normal. “I would argue that it has already created a dent in the relationship from our perspective,” Lu said, again raising the “political situation” in Pakistan. “Let us wait for a few days to see whether the political situation changes, which would mean that we would not have a big disagreement about this issue and the dent would go away very quickly. Otherwise, we will have to confront this issue head on and decide how to manage it.”

    The day after the meeting, on March 8, Khan’s opponents in Parliament moved forward with a key procedural step toward the no-confidence vote.

    “Khan’s fate wasn’t sealed at the time that this meeting took place, but it was tenuous,” said Arif Rafiq, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute and specialist on Pakistan. “What you have here is the Biden administration sending a message to the people that they saw as Pakistan’s real rulers, signaling to them that things will better if he is removed from power.”

    The Intercept has made extensive efforts to authenticate the document. Given the security climate in Pakistan, independent confirmation from sources in the Pakistani government was not possible. The Pakistan Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to a request for comment.

    Miller, the State Department spokesperson, said, “We had expressed concern about the visit of then-PM Khan to Moscow on the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have communicated that opposition both publicly and privately.” He added that “allegations that the United States interfered in internal decisions about the leadership of Pakistan are false. They have always been false, and they continue to be.”

    American Denials

    The State Department has previously and on repeated occasions denied that Lu urged the Pakistani government to oust the prime minister. On April 8, 2022, after Khan alleged there was a cable proving his claim of U.S. interference, State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter was asked about its veracity. “Let me just say very bluntly there is absolutely no truth to these allegations,” Porter said.

    In early June 2023, Khan sat for an interview with The Intercept and again repeated the allegation. The State Department at the time referred to previous denials in response to a request for comment.

    Khan has not backed off, and the State Department again denied the charge throughout June and July, at least three times in press conferences and again in a speech by a deputy assistant secretary of state for Pakistan, who referred to the claims as “propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation.” On the latest occasion, Miller, the State Department spokesperson, ridiculed the question. “I feel like I need to bring just a sign that I can hold up in response to this question and say that that allegation is not true,” Miller said, laughing and drawing cackles from the press. “I don’t know how many times I can say it. … The United States does not have a position on one political candidate or party versus another in Pakistan or any other country.”

    While the drama over the cable has played out in public and in the press, the Pakistani military has launched an unprecedented assault on Pakistani civil society to silence whatever dissent and free expression had previously existed in the country.

    In recent months, the military-led government cracked down not just on dissidents but also on suspected leakers inside its own institutions, passing a law last week that authorizes warrantless searches and lengthy jail terms for whistleblowers. Shaken by the public display of support for Khan — expressed in a series of mass protests and riots this May — the military has also enshrined authoritarian powers for itself that drastically reduce civil liberties, criminalize criticism of the military, expand the institution’s already expansive role in the country’s economy, and give military leaders a permanent veto over political and civil affairs.

    These sweeping attacks on democracy passed largely unremarked upon by U.S. officials. In late July, the head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Michael Kurilla, visited Pakistan, then issued a statement saying his visit had been focused on “strengthening the military-to-military relations,” while making no mention of the political situation in the country. This summer, Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, attempted to add a measure to the National Defense Authorization Act directing the State Department to examine democratic backsliding in Pakistan, but it was denied a vote on the House floor.

    In a press briefing on Monday, in response to a question about whether Khan received a fair trial, Miller, the State Department spokesperson, said, “We believe that is an internal matter for Pakistan.”

    Political Chaos

    Khan’s removal from power after falling out with the Pakistani military, the same institution believed to have engineered his political rise, has thrown the nation of 230 million into political and economic turmoil. Protests against Khan’s dismissal and suppression of his party have swept the country and paralyzed its institutions, while Pakistan’s current leaders struggle to confront an economic crisis triggered in part by the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on global energy prices. The present chaos has resulted in staggering rates of inflation and capital flight from the country.

    In addition to the worsening situation for ordinary citizens, a regime of extreme censorship has also been put in place at the direction of the Pakistani military, with news outlets effectively barred from even mentioning Khan’s name, as The Intercept previously reported. Thousands of members of civil society, mostly supporters of Khan, have been detained by the military, a crackdown that intensified after Khan was arrested earlier this year and held in custody for four days, sparking nationwide protests. Credible reports have emerged of torture by security forces, with reports of several deaths in custody.

    The crackdown on Pakistan’s once-rambunctious press has taken a particularly dark turn. Arshad Sharif, a prominent Pakistani journalist who fled the country, was shot to death in Nairobi last October under circumstances that remain disputed. Another well-known journalist, Imran Riaz Khan, was detained by security forces at an airport this May and has not been seen since. Both had been reporting on the secret cable, which has taken on nearly mythical status in Pakistan, and had been among a handful of journalists briefed on its contents before Khan’s ouster. These attacks on the press have created a climate of fear that has made reporting on the document by reporters and institutions inside Pakistan effectively impossible.

    Last November, Khan himself was subject to an attempted assassination when he was shot at a political rally, in an attack that wounded him and killed one of his supporters. His imprisonment has been widely viewed within Pakistan, including among many critics of his government, as an attempt by the military to stop his party from contesting upcoming elections. Polls show that were he allowed to participate in the vote, Khan would likely win.

    “Khan was convicted on flimsy charges following a trial where his defense was not even allowed to produce witnesses. He had previously survived an assassination attempt, had a journalist aligned with him murdered, and has seen thousands of his supporters imprisoned. While the Biden administration has said that human rights will be at the forefront of their foreign policy, they are now looking away as Pakistan moves toward becoming a full-fledged military dictatorship,” said Rafiq, the Middle East Institute scholar. “This is ultimately about the Pakistani military using outside forces as a means to preserve their hegemony over the country. Every time there is a grand geopolitical rivalry, whether it is the Cold War, or the war on terror, they know how to manipulate the U.S. in their favor.”

    Khan’s repeated references to the cable itself have contributed to his legal troubles, with prosecutors launching a separate investigation into whether he violated state secrets laws by discussing it.

    Democracy and the Military

    For years, the U.S. government’s patronage relationship with the Pakistani military, which has long acted as the real powerbroker in the country’s politics, has been seen by many Pakistanis as an impenetrable obstacle to the country’s ability to grow its economy, combat endemic corruption, and pursue a constructive foreign policy. The sense that Pakistan has lacked meaningful independence because of this relationship — which, despite trappings of democracy, has made the military an untouchable force in domestic politics — makes the charge of U.S. involvement in the removal of a popular prime minister even more incendiary.

    The Intercept’s source, who had access to the document as a member of the military, spoke of their growing disillusionment with the country’s military leadership, the impact on the military’s morale following its involvement in the political fight against Khan, the exploitation of the memory of dead service members for political purposes in recent military propaganda, and widespread public disenchantment with the armed forces amid the crackdown. They believe the military is pushing Pakistan toward a crisis similar to the one in 1971 that led to the secession of Bangladesh.

    The source added that they hoped the leaked document would finally confirm what ordinary people, as well as the rank and file of the armed forces, had long suspected about the Pakistani military and force a reckoning within the institution.

    This June, amid the crackdown by the military on Khan’s political party, Khan’s former top bureaucrat, Principal Secretary Azam Khan, was arrested and detained for a month. While in detention, Azam Khan reportedly issued a statement recorded in front of a member of the judiciary saying that the cable was indeed real, but that the former prime minister had exaggerated its contents for political gain.

    A month after the meeting described in the cable, and just days before Khan was removed from office, then-Pakistan army chief Qamar Bajwa publicly broke with Khan’s neutrality and gave a speech calling the Russian invasion a “huge tragedy” and criticizing Russia. The remarks aligned the public picture with Lu’s private observation, recorded in the cable, that Pakistan’s neutrality was the policy of Khan, but not of the military.

    Pakistan’s foreign policy has changed significantly since Khan’s removal, with Pakistan tilting more clearly toward the U.S. and European side in the Ukraine conflict. Abandoning its posture of neutrality, Pakistan has now emerged as a supplier of arms to the Ukrainian military; images of Pakistan-produced shells and ammunition regularly turn up on battlefield footage. In an interview earlier this year, a European Union official confirmed Pakistani military backing to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s foreign minister traveled to Pakistan this July in a visit widely presumed to be about military cooperation, but publicly described as focusing on trade, education, and environmental issues.

    This realignment toward the U.S. has appeared to provide dividends to the Pakistani military. On August 3, a Pakistani newspaper reported that Parliament had approved the signing of a defense pact with the U.S. covering “joint exercises, operations, training, basing and equipment.” The agreement was intended to replace a previous 15-year deal between the two countries that expired in 2020.

    rest here

    https://theintercept.com/2023/08/09/...n=theintercept

    Just one example of why Imran Khan was removed.

    Last edited by سيف الله; 08-10-2023 at 11:40 AM.
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  15. #111
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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    Salaam

    Another update. Just one example of how Imran Khan is being airbrushed from history.

    ‘The shock of my life’ – Wasim Akram criticises Pakistan Cricket Board for omission of Imran Khan from social media video

    Wasim Akram has joined those to criticise the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for creating and posting a tribute video to several influential figures in Pakistani cricket that included almost no reference to Imran Khan, one of their greatest captains.

    Khan, who served as Pakistan’s Prime Minister from 2018 until April 2022, has recently been sentenced to a three-year jail term on corruption charges, though Khan maintains that the charges are politically motivated.

    In a video posted on Twitter, the PCB told the history of Pakistani cricket from 1952 through to the present day, including highlighting Pakistan’s World Cup victories in 2010 and 1992. However, Khan, who captained Pakistan in their 1992 World Cup triumph, is shown for less than a second in the video as that section ends.

    Thousands of accounts have criticised the apparent snub, with Akram, one of the country’s greatest fast bowlers, among the most high-profile.

    “After long flights and hours of transit before reaching Sri Lanka, I got the shock of my life when I watched PCB’s short clip on the history of Pakistan cricket minus the great Imran Khan…” he tweeted. “Political differences apart but Imran Khan is an icon of world cricket and developed Pakistan into a strong unit in his time and gave us a pathway… PCB should delete the video and apologise.”

    Khan is recognised as perhaps Pakistan’s greatest ever captain, and one of the finest all-rounders in cricket history. He averaged 38 with the bat and 23 with the ball in 88 Tests, including averaging 52 and 20 respectively as captain.

    His leadership at the 1992 World Cup is famed, with Pakistan winning just one of their first five games but all of their next five as the ‘Cornered Tigers’ – a moniker coined by Khan – surged to the title.

    https://wisden.com/stories/news-stor...al-media-video







    having said that the social media backlash has had an effect

    After backlash, Pakistan Cricket Board includes Imran Khan in video, says omitted earlier due to ‘time constraints’

    The updated version has added four parts to the video including Khan’s contributions and lifting the coveted trophy as captain in 1992, Misbah-ul-Haq’s Test mace victory, the Women’s teams victory at the Asia Cup and Nida Dar’s achievement of 100 wickets

    https://indianexpress.com/article/sp...aints-8896216/

    More comment on Imran Khans tenure.

















    Towards a darker future?



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  16. #112
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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    Salaam

    Interesting take on the situation.



    The insistence of many "experts" that the PakMil establishment must concede this below mentioned trope, as if CT/COIN success against TTP/ISKP in 2023 is impossible without this concession, is ideological nonsense, & misreads what PakMil wanted in Afghanistan all along

    PakMil never wanted US to abruptly exit Afghanistan like it did in Aug 2021, neither did they want Afghan Taliban to gain exclusive power on the Afghan state. But that is what happened, and PakMil's leverage on Afg Taliban was somewhat reduced.

    PakMil particularly hoped US drones would keep firing at TTP/ISKP as frequently as before, but Imran Khan(IK) wouldn't accept basing of US drones on Pakistani soil(which is necessary for a sustained drone campaign like the 2001-2021 one). So IK had to go.

    Now PakMil is trying to convince CENTCOM to return to the region, bankroll their Deep State as before, and be the air force for their campaign against TTP/ISKP etc. Ever since the 1980s(with a short hiatus in the 90s),

    PakMil has become fundamentally dependent on continuous unaudited flows of US money. They can't live without it. They can't sustain their chokehold on Pakistan's civilian political class without it.

    The recent CENTCOM visit to PakMil assured the latter of support in CT operations in the two provinces bordering Afghanistan, as well as against militant bases in Afghanistan. US will be involved, directly and indirectly twitter.com/Natsecjeff/sta…

    The US CENTCOM will return to the region, but it won't happen unless there is a very public security failure in Pakistan, maybe collapse of a major population center to militants, like Swat district in 2009? The Chitral raids by TTP might be a precursor to that.
    With friends like these.

    Last edited by سيف الله; 09-12-2023 at 10:30 PM.
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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    Salaam

    Another update. Imran Khan has been jailed.

    Blurb

    Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to another 10 years in jail after he was accused of exposing state secrets.

    Journalists and some of Mr Khan's lawyers were denied access to the court - held inside the prison where he's been serving a three year sentence on corruption charges.

    Mr Khan, who's denied all the allegations against him, has been barred from standing in next week's general elections



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  18. #114
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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    ______ImranKhan is Leader________

    French ambassador was not expelled when French ppl wronged our Prophet Mohammed PBUH.
    Asiya massi was given to kuffar who had disrespected the Prophet PBUH
    Chhota sa tabqa ( see Shujauddin Shaykh vdo on youtube)
    Theft of watch of sign of Islam
    Many frauds caught & told by his ex close guys.
    Nikah before iddah
    Making temples of non Muslims (without knowledge )
    Enjoying fanboyism
    Same narrative ,mun mia mithu
    Free mixing
    Dances/songs in Ramadan
    Not Shariah priority
    Shirkia slogans to unite muslims shia sunni
    Lying media ( Shujauddin Shaykh)
    Pet dogs
    Wife into peers& mazaars
    Pathetic humiliating media & it's lies
    No Shariah plans
    Democracy shirk system
    Continues to talk his achievements -
    Illegitimate child ( will provide proofs from his interview on dunya news)
    Haram relationships caught in leaks
    The members can't stand tortures & left - couldnt sacrifice
    Now kuffar praising IK - shows his real self

    This is our LEADER



    The only good ,he exposed Taghout of todays times & awakened ppl otherwise TRASH as he seems wanting praise.So many lies by his media humiliating content. Good revolutionaries are RESPONSIBLE & RESPECTFUL.

    Don't know what to say to this qom that badly wants unban on hindu festival holi & schools celebrate halloween,with ppl enjoying christmas in Pakistan & giving words of condemnation to US while fulltime striving to get greencard.


    These ones....

    https://lnkd.in/daR57Rvr


    https://lnkd.in/dwpUnsFx

    https://lnkd.in/dD5Y7UCr

    https://lnkd.in/d4S2khgx

    https://lnkd.in/d2nFWBCb

    DM me for detail discussion if you feel like.

    P.Sut NOT Qaaid , just a layman who got popular with self centredness.

    #imrankhanpti #ptiofficial #muslims #islam #fitan #nawazshareef & #shabash brothers.

    All khubasas.

    Our leader will be only Imam Mahdi InshaAllah & his coming signs nearby! InshaAllah

    Regards,
    Eusra Khan (Well-Being Consultant & CEO at my rare start-up wellbeing Consultancy EarlyEar)
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  20. #115
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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    Salaam

    All those accusations seems a lot like tabloid slander so I'm not going to comment.

    And a lot of his 'liberal' policies were endorsed by the ruling generals. whoever the generals install are likely to continue these 'liberal' policies.

    Many can see the flaws of Imran Khan personal and policywise (eg. His response to the Uighur's plight is utterly appalling and shameful) but he represented something different for Pakistan.

    A chance to take an independent course.

    Blurb

    Sami Hamdi, Imran Khan, Pakistan, state secrets, cipher case, Saudi Arabia, corruption, prison sentence, election, conspiracy




    And judging by how well Imran Khans party did (they ran as indys) its clear people of Pakistan dont want to live in a tinpot dicatorship.

    They want something better.
    Last edited by سيف الله; 03-17-2024 at 09:35 PM.
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  21. #116
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    Re: It looks like Imran Khan is about to become Pakistan's prime minister

    Salaam

    Another update

    Blurb

    The case of Aafia Siddiqui remains an open wound for us all. It symbolises the inhumanity and barbarism of US foreign policy. The incarceration of this brilliant academic and mother of three, has become a marker of its excesses, of which there were many. She languishes in prison, serving an 86-year sentence for an offence that looks barely credible, the attempted murder of two US officials in Afghanistan in 2008. Her whereabouts before that date has been hotly contested, but her lawyers and activists have patched together the conspiracy surrounding Dr Aafias ordeal. Sadly the welfare of her youngest son Suleman – who has not been seen since her detention in 2003 remains unknown. Presumed dead.

    The last time I spoke with Dr Aafias lawyer Clive Stafford Smith he had returned from her prison in Forth Worth Texas – where she had been reunited with her sister Fozia for the first time in 20 years. If you haven’t watched that programme, I would highly recommend you do to give you the backstory to this horrific case. Clive has just returned from a factfinsding mission to Afghanistan, and he has some considerable updates on Aafias case.

    Clive has helped secure the release of 86 prisoners from Guantánamo Bay and still acts for the remaining numbers. Since the early days of the War on Terror, he has worked tirelessly to force the Americans and other Western powers to adhere to the rule of law. He has sought to uncover the secret prisons and ghost prisoners that stain the reputation of powerful states – who presented their wars in benevolent terms.


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