By Henry Srebrnik, [Saint John, N.B.] Telegraph-Journal
It’s not easy governing Pakistan. Many of its leaders have ended up in jail or worse. Imran Khan, prime minister from 2018 to 2022, may join that list.
On April 3 the embattled former leader warned that his nation is at a crossroads where it could either become another military-controlled country like Myanmar or follow Turkey, which thwarted a military coup attempt in 2016.
Khan came to power promising to break the pattern of family or military rule in Pakistan. His opponents contended he was elected with help from the powerful military, which has ruled the country for half of its 76-year history.
His party, the Pakistan Movement for Justice (PTI) was founded in 1996 by the Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician and promised a break from the older parties that had led the country through years of ongoing crises.
The PTI won its first seat during the 2002 general election when Khan won the National Assembly seat of Mianwali, in Punjab. It boycotted the 2008 elections due, it asserted, to electoral corruption, but by the 2013 balloting, it managed to receive the second highest number of votes.
In the 2018 general election, the PTI it received 16.9 million votes -- the largest number ever for any political party in Pakistan. The party formed the national government in a coalition with five other parties, with Khan serving as the new Pakistani prime minister.
At first Khan’s popularity served him well. During his first months in office, he enjoyed close ties with the military. But it was not to last, as differences soon began to emerge.
In the fall of 2021, Khan became involved in a conflict with the army over the fate of Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed, whom Khan wanted to retain as the head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Agency, despite the army’s plans to transfer him to another position. When his political opponents realized that Khan no longer enjoyed the army’s support, they took advantage of his vulnerability to remove him.
In seeking Khan’s ouster, the opposition accused him of economic mismanagement, as inflation soared and the Pakistani rupee plummeted in value. Finally, a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022 ousted Khan. It capped months of political turmoil and a constitutional crisis that required the Supreme Court to step in.
The country’s new government, led by Shehbaz Sharif of the Muslim League (Nawaz), one of the country’s old-line parties, filed a complaint against Khan four months later for not sharing details of gifts and proceeds received from world leaders that, it alleged, he had unlawfully sold.
Pakistan’s election commission then disqualified him from holding public office for five years. The ousted leader accused the authorities of trying to score a “technical knockout” against him. He alleged that the Pakistani military had taken part in an American plot to oust him, fearing he was tilting towards China and Russia. Meanwhile, Khan began organizing mass rallies on his behalf. An assassination attempt against him during one demonstration last Nov. 3 heightened the tension.
Today he is facing dozens of court cases on charges that include terrorism and corruption. Several arrest warrants were issued against him after he repeatedly refused to appear in court in Islamabad. This led to clashes with Khan’s supporters in March, as police tried to arrest him at his Lahore residence.
Parliamentary elections in Pakistan are due by October but Khan wants them to be held sooner. “The government is petrified of losing the elections because all opinion polls show they are going to be decimated, Khan stated April 3. He added that he is willing to talk to his opponents only if the agenda includes holding elections.
The Sharif government has become extremely unpopular, with Pakistan mired in an economic crisis. Its foreign reserves are at a nine-year low, inflation is at a 48-year high, and the Pakistani rupee lost 22 percent of its value last year.
Hundreds of foreign containers carrying food and medical supplies have been stranded in ports as authorities do not have the money to make payments.
Long queues of cars can be seen outside gas stations in major cities, including Pakistan’s economic hub, Karachi. Factories are struggling to maintain operations amid power outages and a lack of fuel.
To put the economy back on track and avoid a default, the government was forced to remove subsidies on gas and electricity. It had to agree to these measures in order to get an economic bailout package of $1.1 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund as part of a $6.5 billion rescue programme agreed to in 2019.
The old political establishment clings to power, with the support of the military, by preventing Khan from running for office. After all, his political party has broken the unwritten contract agreed upon by the dynastic political parties and threatens the sanctity of the military.
But the political fireworks that are tearing Pakistan apart are distracting it from tackling its real challenge: a deeply dysfunctional and ailing economy.
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