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Pakistani Imran Khan makes a comeback

Pakistani Imran Khan makes a comeback

 


Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician and Pakistan’s last prime minister, is the man considered most likely to become Pakistan’s next prime minister.

A populist whose Pakistani party Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has won impressive victories in most elections it has contested since being ousted in a no-confidence vote in April, Khan draws huge crowds as he denounces the corruption and influence of the military in politics. He has a penchant for conspiracy theories, disdains journalists, but loves smartphones and social media.

Khan is recovering from gunshot wounds to his legs sustained in an assassination attempt Nov. 3 during one of his many mass marches. He blamed his successor, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, for ordering the shooting. Speaking from his fortified home in Lahore, Khan spoke with Foreign Policy to discuss his legacy and aspirations, his relationship with Washington and how he would handle inflation, unemployment and rising skyrocketing national debt should he return to power.

Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician and Pakistan’s last prime minister, is the man considered most likely to become Pakistan’s next prime minister.

A populist whose Pakistani party Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has won impressive victories in most elections it has contested since being ousted in a no-confidence vote in April, Khan draws huge crowds as he denounces the corruption and influence of the military in politics. He has a penchant for conspiracy theories, disdains journalists, but loves smartphones and social media.

Khan is recovering from gunshot wounds to his legs sustained in an assassination attempt Nov. 3 during one of his many mass marches. He blamed his successor, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, for ordering the shooting. Speaking from his fortified home in Lahore, Khan spoke with Foreign Policy to discuss his legacy and aspirations, his relationship with Washington and how he would handle inflation, unemployment and rising skyrocketing national debt should he return to power.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Foreign policy: What did you achieve as Prime Minister between 2018 and 2022? If you win again, how will you handle double-digit inflation, unemployment and debt?

Imran Khan: The economy has collapsed in the past seven months since we left office. Financial markets have lost confidence and a recent Gallup survey showed that businesses have lost faith in government.

So what will we do next, if I still have a chance? What I’ve been trying to do for 26 years, rule of law. The economy depends on the rule of law, which means allowing a level playing field, allowing small and medium industries to thrive. The rule of law and the economy are for me linked. Unfortunately, what I couldn’t do was bring the powerful mafias to justice because my government was too weak. As a coalition government with a fragile majority, we simply did not have the power to control these mafias.

Whenever the economic revival of Pakistan starts, it will have to start with establishing the rule of law, bringing these mafias, these rent seekers, these real estate mafias, these sugar mafias, the political mafias, under the law. This is a problem with the whole developing world. The reason the developing world is poor is not because of lack of resources, but because there is no rule of law.

FP: You criticized the United States for having cut short your mandate as Prime Minister. And now you say it’s all behind you. Is a normal bilateral relationship possible?

IK: What I’ve always believed about the United States is that we would like to have a dignified relationship with mutual respect, just like the relationship of the United States with India. The US relationship with Pakistan has been transactional. The United States has helped us in the past, and we have made their offer at enormous cost. In the war on terror, we ended up losing 80,000 Pakistanis in a war we had nothing to do with. I opposed it, of course, all along. And the country has paid a huge price.

I have always said that we would like to have a relationship in the future with partners in peace. In a country where there are 120 million vulnerable people, 60 million below the poverty line, 60 million more who, with any price shock, will go below the poverty line, my priority would be how to get my people of poverty. And I can’t if there’s a conflict like we’re joining the war on terror.

FP: You blamed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for the assassination attempt against you. Do you have proof? Or are you replaying the conspiracy card?

IK: I was aware of the plan. I found out when it hatched. [The political leadership] I expected that once I was removed from office people would celebrate and my party would weaken and probably fall apart. Instead, for the first time in our history, people took to the streets to protest. Even I didn’t expect it. But instead of getting weaker, my party got stronger. 75% of the by-elections since I was impeached have been won by my party, despite the fact that the other 11 parties opposed us on the same ticket. They tried to disqualify me, they accused me of terrorism, they did everything.

Finally, they found the final solution. They made a video of me and accused me of blasphemy. I was told about the plot, that they were going to overthrow me and blame a religious fanatic acting alone. There was a complete plan: there were two shooters if one didn’t catch me, the other would. But someone from the crowd, seeing the shooter a few meters away from me, pushed his arm down so that his three bullets hit my leg. When they hit my leg, I collapsed and the bullets from the other gun went over my head. So it was a real assassination attempt.

FP: It is often said that you became Prime Minister with the support of the Pakistani army, but you have since become a fierce critic of military power. Won’t you need the military to support a comeback? Do you intend to reduce the disproportionate role of the army in the management of the country?

IK: The way the military establishment has evolved is a reality. It is the only organized and intact institution in this country. All other institutions are in ruins. In the developing world, institutions are weak because when the political elite wants to steal money, they can only do so if the institutions are weak, so it is in their interest to weaken the institutions. For the past 60 years, half the time Pakistan has been ruled by two crooked families and the other half by the military. By definition, when there is martial law, institutions weaken.

The military can work very effectively with the civil administration if used correctly. For example, when we were dealing with COVID-19, the polio campaign, even the locust invasions, the army being organized played a huge role in helping my government, and we were very effective . What you have to do is find the right balance. No management system in the world can function if it has responsibility without authority. In Pakistan, we need this balance, this balance, so that we have good governance.

The head of the army is the one who decides the policy of the army. I feel like in Pakistan there is a constant reassessment of how to run the country. There’s a huge debate, probably the biggest form of democracy, everyone has a smartphone and a voice about finding that balance, about the rule of law, and that’s very healthy. This is the reason why my party has become so strong. So I think things will change, there will be a new balance.

FP: China has been a close partner of Pakistan for many years, but you have failed to acknowledge the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghurs, your fellow Muslims, which the United States calls genocide. Why not?

IK: Making moral statements about countries, I think is a luxury for rich countries. Poor countries like us cannot afford such statements because it has economic consequences.

I went to Russia to get cheap oil and because we wanted to buy 2 million tons of wheat, we got a reduced rate. One hundred and twenty million Pakistanis are vulnerable. Therefore, when it came to condemning Russian aggression, we abstained, just as India abstained, not because we supported the aggression, but simply because doing a statement about bad foreign policies and actions of another government has economic consequences on people. That’s the only reason we don’t say things sometimes, because it affects us.

Sources

1/ https://Google.com/

2/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/11/21/imran-khan-pakistan-assassination-attempt-election-economy-military/

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