Letter from Pakistan: How the popularity of imprisoned Imran Khan continues to confound his enemies

P.A.

By Kathy Gannon

November 29, 2024

In Islamabad this week, tens of thousands of supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan thronged the tree-lined streets of the most protected part of the federal capital's red zone.

It was no easy feat for them to get there. The army and police were also present in their thousands, amid a security lockdown in the country, internet shutdowns and the blocking of main roads leading to the capital to repel protests.

But protesters, led among others by Khan's wife Bushra Bibi, used raw numbers and heavy vehicles to remove huge shipping containers stacked three high. They broke through police and military barricades. Many were from Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Khan's party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI, or Justice Party), still rules.

The protest was initially promised to last until Khan was released. But after a violent attack on demonstrators that left dozens injured and up to eight dead, as well as five members of the security forces, the demonstrators returned home.

Yet protesters' show of support for Khan, a former star cricketer with a glamorous pre-political lifestyle once married to British journalist and screenwriter Jemima Goldsmith, is bringing him back into the global spotlight. More importantly, it says a lot about the evolution of Pakistani politics.

For some, it's about the popularity of Khan himself. But for many, it is also about rejecting a system that they have long felt has ignored and abused them.

Khan's quiet acceptance of prison and his refusal to seek or make deals for his release have won him support even among those concerned about his sometimes extreme religious views. While in power, the 72-year-old angered women's rights groups with comments suggesting women's dress was to blame for an increase in assaults.

When Khan was ousted, in April 2022, his popularity was uncertain at best, but it soared after a vote of no confidence removed him from power. Largely orchestrated by the military, frustrated by the Khan's growing independence, this project brought the country's tired and largely discredited former politicians back to power.

The then army chief, General Qamar Jawad Bajwa, had all but admitted the army's role in Khan's ouster, which Khan said was done at the behest of the United States. America categorically denied the accusation, although Washington probably did not mourn his ouster.

Khan was a major critic of the US war on terror and images of him shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during an official visit to Moscow on the day Russia invaded Ukraine did not help his position near Washington. To be fair to Khan, his trip was planned months earlier, but the United States expressed outrage.

But far more important than the United States thinks, at home in Pakistan is the frustration people feel with a political landscape dominated by corrupt dynastic politicians, a meddling military, and a relentless lack of respect, turned into anger. This discontent now seems to border on fury.

The Pakistani military has ruled the country for much of its 77-year history, directly or indirectly. The military actually helped bring Khan to power in 2018, just as it orchestrated the ouster of his predecessor, Nawaz Sharif. The rift between the military and their chosen politicians usually begins when politicians start acting as if they actually run the country and dare to defy the military's wishes.

For some, it's about the popularity of Khan himself. But for many, it is also about rejecting a system that they have long felt has ignored and abused them.

Take the current leaders, the Sharifs and the Bhuttos. Neither the late Benazir Bhutto, assassinated in 2007, nor her father, hanged by a military ruler, were the military's favorites, but she was twice returned to power with their help and twice ousted, also with their help. Nawaz Sharif was a favorite of the army until he dared to challenge their rule and was ousted. Bhutto's son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, is a former foreign minister and chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). He and his father, President Asif Ali Zardari, remain active players in the country's coalition government. During his wife's rule, Zardari was labeled Mr. 10 Percent, a reference to the alleged bribes he would charge from companies wanting to do business in Pakistan.

The army opened the door to Imran Khan, but after three years, Khan began to behave as if he could take decisions independently of General Bajwa, the army chief. Today, the Sharifs are back, although instead of Nawaz, it is his brother Shehbaz Sharif as prime minister and his daughter Maryam as chief minister of the most powerful and most powerful province of Punjab. populated by the country. Zardari is president of Pakistan.

Even though the political leadership of today's Pakistan resembles that of yesterday, dominated by the Sharifs and Bhuttos and led by the army, Pakistan is different.

In the February elections that followed Khan's ouster, which the military and its political allies sought to manipulate, Khan's supporters won a major victory. Even though Khan's party was not allowed to participate in the vote, independent candidates representing his party, on a platform of challenging the military in politics and holding the corrupt to account, won big.

This was a first for Pakistan.

The electorate, which had always been politically savvy, was also resigned to the status quo, and an arrogant leadership viewed it as uneducated and easily manipulated.

But that is no longer the case in this different Pakistan, largely because of a younger generation, more widely educated at home in post-secondary institutions and although connected to the world via smartphones, rooted in their country rather than 'abroad. In Pakistan, the days are gone when post-secondary education abroad, the exclusive domain of the elite, defined educated Pakistanis. .

Today, in Pakistan, universities have proliferated. While in 2000 there were around 1 million post-secondary students, in 2020 there were almost 5 million, and they have expectations. Analysts say they are also more political. But it is also the generations of Pakistanis in their 30s and 40s who are frustrated by the lifestyle of the rich and corruption and by a military that they increasingly see in a similar light.

In February, Gallup Pakistan published an interesting survey on election day and after the election, which said: Youth voter turnout increases significantly in 2024; The popularity of PTI (Khan's party) among new voters and relatively educated segments has made it the largest vote-getter in the country.

He added that 31 percent of voters voted for the PTI (as independents), followed by the Sharifs' party, which got 24 percent of the vote.

While political manipulation and rigging have characterized most of Pakistan's past elections, social media and an explosion of local media outlets have highlighted seat theft this time around.

Adding to this changing situation is a more aggressive and independent judiciary that in the past has covered up military rule and bowed to the powerful. But that too is changing. In a rare show of defiance, five judges signed a letter demanding that the military and its intelligence services stop trying to influence court decisions. Court rulings also challenged a suspect election commission.

The judiciary, like Parliament, is still weak after successive episodes of military rule, but while it may have taken one step forward and two steps back, it is now moving forward.

Most of the time, newspaper headlines reflect the fact that people want more. They demand respect from their leaders and that their rights and needs be recognized and met.

But the changes in Pakistan are fundamentally based on the desire and increasingly the demand that future elections be decided on the performance of the country's politicians for the people, rather than their performance for themselves and for the people. army or any other power of the country.

Kathy Gannon covered Pakistan and Afghanistan for the Associated Press for 34 years. She is the author of the book I is for Infidel. You can read his regular posts on Substack.

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