Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption, another setback for the beleaguered leader who has already spent over 18 months in jail and is facing more than 100 cases.
Khan, who remains the country’s most popular political figure, has maintained that the cases against him are part of a “political witchunt” to keep him out of power. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) governed from 2018 to 2022 but he was toppled from office after losing the support of the country’s powerful military. He subsequently embarked on a public spat with the army leadership, accusing them of involvement in a plan to assassinate him.
Since his arrest he has faced a mounting number of cases, including murder, terrorism, and breaching national security. Khan was convicted in three cases, including for selling state secrets and illegal marriage, but they were later overturned or suspended last year. However, he has remained in prison.
I don’t anything about the guy but on a surface level, Pakistan can imprison a corrupt leader and the US can’t? We’re so pathetic these days.
The US staged a coup in Pakistan to overthrow Imran Khan because he would not send artillery munitions to Ukraine.
Imran Khan is innocent.
Nothing says ‘coup’ quite like [checks notes] a vote of no-confidence
You don’t know what you are talking about. Members of parliament who didn’t vote for no-confidence had their private moments leaked. Which is considered a huge disrespect in pakistan. Others were offered money. So basically the whole carrot and a stick spiel.
Military had dirt on basically everyone.
A great article about the no-confidence coup can be found here https://theintercept.com/2023/08/09/imran-khan-pakistan-cypher-ukraine-russia/
Jeffrey Sachs wrote a good summary about it. https://www.jeffsachs.org/newspaper-articles/a8dt7m63khdptc8hw6c8xej2yxwaz5
Nothing says coup like trying to imprison Imran Khan on bogus charges like his marriage papers being invalid.
Nothing says coup like trying to imprison Imran Khan on bogus charges like his marriage papers being invalid.
Is that what happened back in 2022? (PROTIP: it is not)
Maybe the US tried to dissolve the democratically elected legislature to avoid them voting against their interests?
Oh, wait, that was what Imran Khan tried to do when the vote began.
“Imran Khan is mistreated by the current government ran by his spiteful opposition” and “America did not pull a coup in Pakistan” are not mutually exclusive positions.
In the meeting, according to the document, Lu spoke in forthright terms about Washington’s displeasure with Pakistan’s stance in the conflict. The document quotes Lu saying that “people here and in Europe are quite concerned about why Pakistan is taking such an aggressively neutral position (on Ukraine), if such a position is even possible. It does not seem such a neutral stand to us.” Lu added that he had held internal discussions with the U.S. National Security Council and that “it seems quite clear that this is the Prime Minister’s policy.”
Lu then bluntly raises the issue of a no-confidence vote: “I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington because the Russia visit is being looked at as a decision by the Prime Minister,” Lu said, according to the document. “Otherwise,” he continued, “I think it will be tough going ahead.”
Lu warned that if the situation wasn’t resolved, Pakistan would be marginalized by its Western allies. “I cannot tell how this will be seen by Europe but I suspect their reaction will be similar,” Lu said, adding that Khan could face “isolation” by Europe and the U.S. should he remain in office.
Is that supposed to reinforce the idea that it was a ‘coup’? A diplomat saying that a prime minister’s diplomatic policy will create diplomatic repercussions?
lmao
Direct threat to make a government to overthrow their leader is ‘diplomacy’.
lol…you’re a lying cunt. not one person in the US gives a fuck about Pakistan to do the conspiracy you’re talking about. lol
Wait you said you didn’t know better so let me try and explain the geopolitical importance of pakistan to USA.
Basically US has always had one country “pro-US” in that region because of china. India always had a very close connection with russia so US had a close connection with pakistan. Think back to how Pakistan helped train mujahideen in afghanistan?
Anyways then china rose to power and pakistan started siding with china so naturally US started siding with india.
Now the issue is US has already left afghanistan and russia has attacked ukraine. And india is much much closer to russia so now that leaves Pakistan.
Imran khan had to go away because he was pro-“independence from the west”.
If you look at Pakistan China relationship, you will see that chinese companies are pulling out their projects/workers from Pakistan. Pak-China relationship is probably at its lowest.
Meanwhile, pakistan usa relationship is getting stronger and stronger.
Look up cypher case, nobody blaming americans. It is the american government thats to blame
“Americans don’t care, therefore it isn’t real”
No I don’t think you understand. He isn’t corrupt. The military basically controls the government in Pakistan and they didn’t like him and tried to remove him from power. They even shot him in the leg. Imran Khan was democratically elected and is very popular. The government has had to make huge efforts to censor the media to keep the uproar at bay. Its banned on the news to mention Imran Khan.
You’re right, I don’t understand which is why I put the disclaimers. Military control of government doesn’t seem to be an uncommon thing in the middle east.
