One of the regional heavyweights in South Asia after India, Pakistan is making headlines on the issues of political instability, economic crises and non-traditional security threats. A recent jail sentence of 10 years has been meted out to a populist former prime minister Imran Khan, a versatile politician of this generation on the abuse of authority. While democracy in Pakistan has been punctuated by a military regime and fragile democratically elected leadership in its history, Imran Khan’s rise and fall in politics bespeak the mounting instability in the country. Let us take a snapshot of Imran Khan’s political career and the coming general election the country is bracing for on February 8.
A 71-year-old Pakistani politician and former cricketer, Imran Khan, who served as the 22nd Prime Minister from August 2018 to April 2022 had a rocky political career. Founding chairman of the political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from 1996 to 2023, Khan before taking an active part in politics was a professional cricketer taking the captaincy of the Pakistan national cricket team throughout the 1980s and early 90s. An Oxford graduate, Khan started his innings in international cricket in a 1971 Test series against England and his captaincy led to the national team’s only victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup. He was considered one of the most versatile players inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
His political career was no less interesting, making an entry by winning a seat in the National Assembly in the 2002 general election and serving as an opposition member from Mianwali until 2007. The PTI which had boycotted the 2008 general election became the second-largest party by popular vote in the 2013 general election. In the 2018 General Election, PTI on a populist platform became the largest party in the parliament and formed a coalition government with independents under Khan’s premiership. However, after vehement oppositional politics and security challenges facing Pakistan, Khan became the first prime minister to be removed from office through a no-confidence motion in April 2022. Khan was arrested on several corruption charges while in the government including Toshakhana or state gifts embezzlement reference case and disclosing a diplomatic cable sent from his envoy in Washington. The military was initially speculated to support Khan’s ascendance to the Chief Executive in the government. But he blamed his downfall on the military too.
Imran Khan’s premiership witnessed turbulence with corruption scandals, poor economic conditions and upsetting civilian government relations with an entrenched security system. Thereafter, Khan has no good political omen. His party is in disarray, many key aides jailed, on the run, or having abandoned him after a spate of legal challenges and thousands of party workers remain under arrest. Khan and his party PTI are backing several candidates in this election but no tall candidates carry his party in absentia.
An arch-rival former three-time prime minister 74-year-old Nawaz Sharif who was convicted of corruption too returned from self-exile in London during his brother’s rule last year. Sharif dominated Pakistan’s politics for more than 35 years. His third stint ended in 1999 over civil-military relations when the then military chief now deceased General Pervez Musharraf waged a coup d’état. Its repercussions were seen in the Kargil War with India. Pakistani leadership in particular blames the ISI intelligence agency and military for perpetuating political instability while these security agencies deny those charges and say it remains apolitical.
Apart from these duo controversial politicos – Khan and Sharif, 35-year-old former foreign minister and son of the first woman prime minister Benazir Bhutto, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is tapping the widespread anger, youth appeal, and says he has a concrete plan despite fiscal limits to provide free electricity and boost social safety programs and also has ambitious plans to combat climate change.
Higher living costs and political uncertainty have muted Pakistan’s once-noisy election campaigns. The upcoming polls on February 8, the first since 2018 and delayed since last November, are set to take place amid an uncertain political environment. Pakistani voters are going to elect its leaders to rule the country plagued by economic crises, democratic challenges, deteriorating civil-military relations and violence-laden religious extremism.
