Tag: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz

We won’t be fooled again, say people of Pakistan

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment
AUGUST 04: PAKISTAN JUSTICE MOVEMENT (PTI) PARTY SUPPORTERS HOLD A PROTEST LED BY FORMER PRIME MINISTER IMRAN KHAN AGAINST THE COALITION GOVERNMENT AND THE ELECTION COMMISSION AT FATMA JINNAH PARK IN THE F-9 REGION OF ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN ON AUGUST 04, 2022. (MUHAMMED SEMIH UĞURLU – ANADOLU AGENCY)

Politicians in Pakistan rise to power and fall from grace with alarming regularity, so much so that not a single prime minister has ever completed a full term in office. The one constant has been the genuine love and affection ordinary people have for the military. However, that could be about to change now that some inconvenient truths are beginning to surface in the increasingly clumsy attempts to silence Imran Khan.

We won’t be fooled again, say people of Pakistan

The Ouster Of Imran Khan: How Much Involvement Did the US Have in Pakistan’s Coup?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The Ouster Of Imran Khan: How Much Involvement Did the US Have in Pakista’s Coup?

On a regional level, the Khan administration has also taken steps that have angered the world’s sole superpower. Khan has attempted to increase close bilateral collaboration to improve trade and transport links with Iran, describing their 517-mile border as a frontier of “peace and friendship” and expressing his happiness at the “positive momentum in brotherly relations between the two countries.” In 2019, he also tried to broker peace negotiations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, an agreement that could have brought considerably more peace to the Middle East. The Trump administration vehemently opposed these negotiations, scuppering them weeks later by assassinating Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.

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While he has supported Iran, he has also publically opposed many of the policies of key U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Israel. Khan successfully campaigned against Pakistani involvement in the Saudi-led war on Yemen, while he has consistently championed Palestinian rights and demanded the Muslim world do more to help them. “A day will come when Palestinians will get their own country, a just settlement, and they will be able to live as equal citizens,” he said last year, comparing their struggle to that of the worldwide campaign against Apartheid South Africa. Meanwhile, he has also publicly supported imprisoned publisher Julian Assange.

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The Pakistani military is thought to possess around 165 nuclear warheads. The country’s nuclear status came into sharp relief just as the campaign to oust Khan was heating up. While the world was concentrating on Ukraine, a potentially far more deadly incident occurred when India mistakenly fired a BrahMos cruise missile – the sort it uses to deliver its nuclear warheads – into Pakistan. In the course of routine maintenance, the rocket was accidentally launched. India did not immediately inform its neighbor of its mistake.

‘Welcome back to old Pakistan’: Imran Khan’s ousting marks return of political dynasties

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

‘Welcome back to old Pakistan’: Imran Khan’s ousting marks return of political dynasties

The toppling of Khan on Sunday was a triumph for Pakistan’s leading political families, the Sharifs and Bhuttos, who were once bitter rivals but united in an alliance against the former sports superstar after he won election in 2018.

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Pakistan has been ruled by the military for about half of its existence since the nation was founded in 1947 while the Bhuttos and Sharifs have led multiple civilian governments since the 1970s.

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Nasir Ali Shah Bukhari, who heads brokerage KASB [Securities], said Sharif’s experience working in his family’s metals business before he went into politics would reassure the business community. “He himself is a businessman and has a thorough understanding of the challenges faced by businessmen,” Bukhari said.

Sharif and his brother Nawaz have been dogged by corruption allegations, which they say are politically motivated. Nawaz was serving a seven-year jail sentence for corruption when he got special permission to visit the UK for medical treatment in 2019. He has remained in the UK since.

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Asfandyar Mir, an expert at the US Institute of Peace, said the two families found common cause as Pakistan’s powerful military sought to reduce their influence. “The military have deep disdain for both of these political parties,” Mir said. “So I suspect they’ll work together . . . they realise Khan is the common rival they have, and that he can make a comeback.”