New Delhi: Imran Khan has Noam Chomsky’s vote, at least as per a video interview doing the rounds on social media for the past 48 hours. And the vote has divided Pakistanis. While Khan’s supporters are hailing the American linguist and philosopher, others are questioning his understanding of Pakistan’s politics.
“If Imran Khan were running, I would take time to vote for him. But I don’t know of any other political figure in Pakistan who seems to be worth devoting much political energy and effort,” the renowned linguist and public intellectual can be purportedly seen responding to a question that appears on a black screen. The interviewer is neither seen nor heard throughout the clip.
Noam Chomsky: If Imran Khan were running, I would take time to vote for him. pic.twitter.com/x1F0XCC8Lm
— Ans Hafeez (@PakForeverIA) February 26, 2023
A longer 21-minute video, with more such questions on Khan and Pakistani politics, was posted on YouTube by a handle named ‘Wahab’ with 10 followers on Monday. The audio appears disrupted and could be doctored. ThePrint can’t independently verify the authenticity of the video/clip.
It’s also not clear who interviewed Chomsky and when it took place, although the name ‘Wahab K.Khan’ appears on the bottom left of the screen. Pakistani media, including BOL News, have been running news segments on the video over the past 24 hours.
In the video interview, Chomsky also said that during his tenure, Khan was “making an effort to do some fairly decent things” and that he doesn’t think “anything happened that justified his expulsion from the political system”. Khan was ousted from power after losing a no-confidence vote in April 2022.
Pakistani lawyer and political commentator Muneeb Qadir tweeted a screenshot of a purported email conversation with Chomsky.
I reached out to Noam Chomsky via email. In the video itself he says, ‘Sometimes it’s worth going to the polls just to vote against the worst’. So he’s not endorsing IK. He’s saying that out of the worst, IK seems to be the best in his limited knowledge of Pakistani politics pic.twitter.com/6va9e5Q9RC
— Muneeb Qadir (@muneebqadirmmq) February 27, 2023
Twitter divided
His observations are proving to be divisive. Responding to the screenshot shared by Qadir, political scientist Aqil Shah asked: “What does Chomsky know about politics in Pakistan?”
Others called the linguist “ill-informed”, with many blaming Khan for bringing Pakistan “to the brink of default” and calling him a “complete farce.”
On the other hand, a Twitter user reacted to the video saying that the real cause of corruption in Pakistan is the “stooge generals” who have become the “bloodsuckers of Pakistan”.
During the interview, Chomsky did not always come out in support of Khan. In fact, he expressed his doubts over whether there was any truth to Khan’s claims that Washington had a hand in the ousting of his government.
He says that while it is “plausible” to believe that the US might have been involved given its “consistent” past history with Pakistan, the lack of “convincing evidence” is where he draws the line on the matter.
In the past, too, the linguist, though a harsh critic of US foreign policy, had said there was no concrete evidence of any coup plot against Imran Khan.
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Chomsky’s open letter
This is not the first time Chomsky has weighed in on Pakistan’s administration. He and other leading academics penned an open letter to the Shehbaz Sharif government last year urging immediate action against the “deteriorating human rights situation in Pakistan”, after the ouster of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.
The letter dated 26 May recounted that the past two months were witness to an “alarming rise in human rights violations in Pakistan”, including the clamping down on freedom of speech and the harassment of journalists, social media users and political activists.
In June 2022, Imran Khan retweeted a report that cited the letter and highlighted Chomsky’s viewpoints, calling him one of the world’s most respected intellectuals.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)