New Delhi: Imran Khan’s dispatch from jail has accused “the army, security agencies and the civil bureaucracy” of not providing him and his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, “any playing field at all, let alone a level one” in the upcoming elections. The former Pakistan PM, in his guest essay for The Economist, has also pointed fingers at America, and Pakistanis cannot stop raving about the ‘exposé’
“5-month long incarceration refuses to tone him down,” wrote journalist Alina Shigri on X.
Khan emphatically writes that he was ready to be a friend to all but not “anyone’s proxy for wars”. He writes that his refusal to provide bases for the US Army in Pakistan and his “push for an independent foreign policy” is why the US pressured “the establishment” to remove him.
Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the US Department of State, branded Khan’s allegations as “baseless”.
The Economist, too, issued a note at the end of the article: Pakistan’s government and America’s State Department deny Mr Khan’s allegations of American interference in Pakistani politics.
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Reactions pour
Imran Khan, who was ousted through a vote of no-confidence in April 2022, has been in jail since August 2023. He was sentenced to three years in prison under the Official Secrets Act for illegally selling state goods while in office.
But he continues to dominate headlines across Pakistan. His AI-generated video note in December made waves for “winning the war of narratives”. The Economist article has garnered similar reactions.
Journalist Adib Andleeb in his video on YouTube says that Khan has shaken the system and there is nothing more important than this article. Even a Pakistan Army veteran, who goes by Maj (R) Asim on X, endorsed the former PM’s stance, calling the current government a fascist “miltablishment”.
One X user, @Refutationist, has used AI to generate a reading of the article in Khan’s voice. In the accompanying tweet, they say that unless the former PM’s demand for a level playing field is met “Pakistan may face a major tragedy”. The video has almost 80,000 views.
But not everyone was impressed by the article. Journalist Sadia Khalid posed a question to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Qazi Faez Isa, on X—How is Khan being allowed to write columns from jail?
“Were jail inmates provided this facility in the past? Can a poor person sit in jail and write a column in the local newspaper? Has any poor accused ever gotten such a protocol?” she asked.
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‘Unfairly muzzled’
Imran Khan also took a dig at Nawaz Sharif in the article. He calls him “a former prime minister with a conviction for corruption” and “an absconder from Pakistani justice”.
“It is my belief that Mr Sharif has struck a deal with the establishment whereby it will support his acquittal,” he wrote.
But he warned that ‘his party is being unfairly muzzled’ and the upcoming elections on 8 February are going to be a farce.
He added that the establishment can throw its weight behind Sharif “but so far the public has been unrelenting in its support for PTI”.
Pakistani social media reactions hailing him as a hero lend weight to his claims that his “personal approval rating is even higher” than that of PTI.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)