Imran Khan’s political games leave him isolated as Pakistan army destroys party

[El Sidd]

you never know any moment a black pickup truck with tinted glass will come in and whisk you away and you might become a missing person

That can happen anywhere in the world.

 

[Fish]

Who said we're insecure and discriminated against? Things have changed last 20 years, and there are no such acts of racism that make us feel threatened; 9/11 was a one-off event.

I guess they're too busy killing each other to focus on quote/unquote "Muslim invaders" and their quote/unquote "grooming gangs."

Last I see there are more Muslims on Muslim killing.

Oh yeah, look at these bloody Muslims with 270 mass shootings and 18,073 gun violence related deaths since January 1st, 2023.

Oh wait, that's the almighty U.S of A, the home of the "White Savoirs"!

Don't get caught in the crossfire, eh?

 

[Olympus81]

The army is not dismantling PTI. Each of the deserter in the PTi camp were long touted to leave the party. There has always been internal rifts in PTI like any other party and Mr. Niazi actually benefited and enjoyed these internal rifts.

You mean to say there was no coercion at any level by anyone to force the PTI leaders to quit?

Why is then they were whisked away for a few days and then a press conference held conveniently for them to announce their exit from PTI? Or were they just invited for tea in Vigos?

Elections are going to be held in October (postponed from May against the SC verdict), hence PTI needs to be dismantled quickly. So far some of the PTI leaders have quit, with ‘no’ coercion, but the forward bloc is not coming through. The optics of PTI banned altogether doesn’t look good. Guess it’s work in progress, by the PTI leaders themselves, right.

 

[Raj-Hindustani]

Allies desert former prime minister amid disappearances and torture as powerful military reasserts control

In recent days, Imran Khan has cut an increasingly isolated figure. Since Pakistan’s former prime minister was released from jail, after a brief but explosive attempt to arrest him last month, his return has been marked by a mass exodus of the top leadership of his party, on a scale that has surprised even his critics.

Late on Thursday night, Pervez Khattak, the former chief minister and defence minister, became the latest high-profile resignation from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. He followed in the path of Khan’s former finance minister, his former human rights minister, his former information minister and his former shipping minister, who all stepped down from senior posts or left PTI altogether in recent weeks. Dozens of other federal and state ministers have followed suit.


Most of those who have not defected are now behind bars. On Thursday night, the president of PTI, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi – who recently said he would stand behind Khan during these “difficult times” – was arrested by anti-terrorism police at his home in Lahore. Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Khan’s former foreign minister, still remains in prison after his arrest in May, along with several other key ministers and thousands of rank and file PTI members.

There is little question among analysts who is orchestrating the arrests and resignations. Since Khan’s relationship with the all-powerful military establishment fell apart and led to his fall from power, he has been on a crusade against the army leadership. He has accused them of attempting to assassinate him and of being behind his arrest in May, before he was released when the courts declared his detention illegal.

In response, say analysts and PTI members, the army chief is now trying to systematically break up Khan’s party, before arresting him and putting him on trial in a military court. The likelihood of Khan being allowed to contest Pakistan’s next election, due by October, is considered by most to be very slim.

“This dramatic crackdown is a clear strategy by the military to break down all the support structures that Khan has,” said Avinash Paliwal, an associate professor in international relations at Soas University of London. “Once those structures are gone, Khan is next in line.”

Yet despite Khan’s claims that this is a “crackdown never seen before in Pakistan’s history”, Paliwal said this was instead a continuation of a pattern by the military that has marred the country’s pathway to democracy since 1958, when the first military coup took place.

Since then, the military has routinely asserted itself as the most powerful political player in Pakistan, either through direct rule or by controlling and masterminding things behind the scenes. All of the country’s most powerful political parties have fallen foul of military crackdowns and arrests. Before Khan, it was the prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, who in 2017, after falling out with the military, was toppled from power and jailed for corruption, as were several others before him.

“This is no anomaly, it is something that the military does occasionally whenever it feels that it needs to tame a civilian political outlet which is getting too big for its boots,” said Paliwal. “The military is the only party that is ruling the country.”

Khan would not be the first prime minister to be put on trial by the military. In 1977, the prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was deposed in a military coup, put on trial under martial law and then executed.

The pressures imposed on senior figures, and even those lower down the ranks of PTI, have been stark. One senior party leader who was arrested in May and has since resigned from PTI described being handed over by police to the notorious military agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

“For me they used multiple methods to pressure me to leave the party, but one of the worst was torture,” he said, requesting anonymity over fear of the military. “They tied my feet and hung me upside down and I was like a punching bag for them. They were beating with sticks and punches and kicking me.

“They called my family and threatened them and told me that they would pick up my children and entire family if I don’t leave the party. The offer I was given was that if I left PTI, I would get relief. I knew there was no other way.”

Even those lower down in the party described the pressure they were receiving from the military, with many accused of taking part in violent riots and protests that erupted on 9 May after Khan’s arrest. Homes and headquarters of the military were among the buildings attacked in the violence.

Since then, the military and government have described it as a “black day” for Pakistan and vowed to bring the full force of the state down on those who took part, while accusing Khan of being the mastermind. Those who participated, and even those who were just affiliated with the party, have been rounded up in their thousands and charged with terrorism offences, with some due to face trial in military courts.

The brother of a PTI youth wing leader said his whole family had been in hiding since 9 May, after experiencing raids on their homes and constant harassment by police. He said he had been separated from his wife and newborn baby for almost a month as a result.

“Why are they harassing me or my parents just because my brother is part of the PTI leadership?” he said. “We have received indirect messages to ‘quit PTI if you don’t want to be in this situation’. This is the worst political situation I’ve seen in my life.”

Human rights groups have expressed concern that the military are turning to their other notorious strategy of intimidation for those aligned with PTI or opposed to the military: disappearances.

The pro-PTI journalist Imran Riaz Khan has been missing since 11 May. On Sunday, Murad Akbar, the brother of a former adviser to Imran Khan, Mirza Shahzad Akbar, was picked up from the family home and has not been seen since, with the police denying any knowledge of his whereabouts.

“We all know who is responsible,” said Mirza Shahzad Akbar, who is in the UK and no longer an office bearer in PTI but is named as an accused in one of the prominent corruption cases against Khan. “My brother has no involvement in politics. Going after my brother and abducting him is to pressurise me.”

On Thursday night, the prominent lawyer and rights activist Jibran Nasir, who was an outspoken critic of the military, was picked up by unidentified men in Karachi, according to his wife.

Yet for all the pressure being exerted, the scale of the defections and speed of the collapse of PTI has exceeded that of any other party that has faced a similar crackdown. Analysts say it is a reflection of the ideological weakness of PTI under Khan, who failed to build any institutions within the party and relied solely on his own populist appeal to keep it together.

There had been mounting frustration at Khan’s political games. Though his public crusade has been to demand general elections as soon as possible, according to those in PTI’s former top leadership, and confirmed by the law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, behind the scenes Khan twice torpedoed offers by the ruling coalition to hold elections.

The first offer came in May last year and the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, had even written his resignation speech, but after the government approached Khan with the election proposal, he announced his “long march” protest. Not wanting to look like they were bowing to pressure, the government called off the plan.

Then, during supreme court-mandated negotiations between PTI and the government in early May, the government proposed dissolving the parliament by July and holding elections at the end of September. PTI senior leaders in the meeting were enthusiastic, but after a phone-call with Khan, were told to reject the plan and looked visibly dejected according to those in the negotiations.

As trust in Khan’s loyalty to his party members has diminished, few at the upper levels of PTI have proved willing to stand up to the military and face the likely draconian consequences, instead choosing to leave him. A former senior party leader confirmed that several of those who resigned were now in discussion for a plan to rebuild PTI “minus Khan” as a way to “save the party”.

“It is the bitter truth [that] Khan does not care about his workers and close aides and what they go through or face,” he said. “Anyone who has known him closely, knows he just thinks about himself. Khan is a big narcissist.”

Imran Khan’s political games leave him isolated as Pakistan army destroys party

Allies desert former prime minister amid disappearances and torture as powerful military reasserts control

www.theguardian.com

@Maula Jatt @PakSarZameen47 @Menace2Society @Pakstallion @Vapnope @Areesh @DESERT FIGHTER @Desert Fox 1 @N.Siddiqui @Norwegian @TNT @Imad.Khan @Dalit @ziaulislam @EternalMortal @lastofthepatriots @WarKa DaNG @Warking @Talwar e Pakistan @WinterFangs @kingQamaR @Menace2Society @Indus Pakistan@Ghazwa-e-Hind @Norwegian @PakFactor @akramishaqkhan @Zornix @pakpride00090 @Abid123 @Goritoes @SecularNationalist @PakistaniandProud @PAKISTANFOREVER @Dual Wielder @Great Janjua @ahaider97 @PakFactor @Sayfullah @SaadH @villageidiot @Olympus81@Mobius 1 @General Dong @Genghis khan1@alphapak @RealNapster @Kharral @Mobius 1@Goenitz @Muhammad Saftain Anjum @AA_ @Mobius 1 @Great Janjua @The Accountant @PakSword @villageidiot @Kharral @SaadH @Goenitz @PakFactor @Tamerlane @ARMalik @Khan_21 @Yousafzai_M @NaqsheYaar @NooriNuth @SaadH @Kharral @AA_ @SaadH @Tamerlane @villageidiot @waz @PakSword @Mugen @Tamerlane @PakAlp @HerbertPervert @Path-Finder @Tamerlane @Drexluddin Khan Spiveyzai @AlKardai @waz @Areesh @hatehs @Path-Finder @HerbertPervert @Dr. Strangelove @mangochutney @Jango

100% agreed with the Title..

 

[fitpOsitive]

View attachment 932873

Yeh Jis asasy ki bat kerrhy hain woh 100 bar girvi rakhy jachuky hain..

 

[PakFactor]

I guess they're too busy killing each other to focus on quote/unquote "Muslim invaders" and their quote/unquote "grooming gangs."



Oh yeah, look at these bloody Muslims with 270 mass shootings and 18,073 gun violence related deaths since January 1st, 2023.

View attachment 932912

Oh wait, that's the almighty U.S of A, the home of the "White Savoirs"!

Don't get caught in the crossfire, eh?

Compare that stat's with the overall Islamic World, and you'll see where you guys rank compared to the U.S.
It's a useless statistic that you pulled out.

But do tell us what dignity you guys have when your police raid your homes and pick up your mothers and daughters. Explain the concept of begging with dignity while you're at it.

 

[Indos]

Imran Khan fate prediction

Will he become another Nelson Mandela for Pakistani ?

Or Aung San Suu Kyi ?

Time will tell..........

 

[Fish]

Compare that stat's with the overall Islamic World, and you'll see where you guys rank compared to the U.S.

Show me, I'm all eyes and ears.

But do tell us what dignity you guys have when your police raid your homes and pick up your mothers and daughters.

At least trigger happy cops aren't shooting up innocent civilians here on a regular basis!

Explain the concept of begging with dignity while you're at it.

If you think the likes of GoFundMe is all about begging then who am I to argue!

BTW, why such an obsession with begging?! I'm not implying anything but... it's rather suspicious!

 

[Drexluddin Khan Spiveyzai]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1665002091688136705

I understand the comparison with Rwanda but it's gotten old.

I urge everyone to update themselves on Rwanda, it's a mature, self-respecting nation and they are developing by leaps and bounds, yet another shameful comparison for us, considering Rwanda's past and ours.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Imran Khan the honorable is already a Leader of Nation

He need not become anything more


Time for Fauj and Army to accept Will of Civilian Pakistani people , and accept that Civilian Pakistani are owners of Pakistan

• It is they (Army or Fauj) who must decided if they will be again humiliated like in 1971
• Or Get humiliated like Saddam Hussain was humiliated in Iraq
• Or Accept people's will and do their JOB like Army they do in USA/UK/France else where

 

[El Sidd]

You mean to say there was no coercion at any level by anyone to force the PTI leaders to quit?

Why is then they were whisked away for a few days and then a press conference held conveniently for them to announce their exit from PTI? Or were they just invited for tea in Vigos?

Elections are going to be held in October (postponed from May against the SC verdict), hence PTI needs to be dismantled quickly. So far some of the PTI leaders have quit, with ‘no’ coercion, but the forward bloc is not coming through. The optics of PTI banned altogether doesn’t look good. Guess it’s work in progress, by the PTI leaders themselves, right.

I can only assume that they were being investigated and blamed Mr. Niazi for orchestrating the 9th May tragedy.

 

[Finer]

Yeah. Someone should tell them their job is to report facts, not present both sides' versions. Only one side is correct.

There's a great analogy/joke about this practice too but I've forgotten. But I faintly remember the gist of it and the punchline was similar to this.

Presenting both sides where one should be reporting facts is like if a woman accused man of rape. you take the rapists version saying "not my fault. she looked mighty attractive". Basically, presenting the rapists' version in the interest of fair reporting.

That is stupid statement. Only judge has the right to pass the verdict and even then, they depend on concrete evidence whereas the medias can only present information that appears to inform readers. Even medias cannot pass informations as fact.

 

[Drexluddin Khan Spiveyzai]

That is stupid statement. Only judge has the right to pass the verdict and even then, they depend on concrete evidence whereas the medias can only present information that appears to inform readers. Even medias cannot pass informations as fact.

Do you understand that there is a difference between facts and judgement? Facts are absolute and exist independently. Infact (pun intented), facts are the basis of any sound judgement. When you are reporting, your job is to present the facts, the judgement is made by the readers.

 

[lightning F57]

You mean to say there was no coercion at any level by anyone to force the PTI leaders to quit?

Why is then they were whisked away for a few days and then a press conference held conveniently for them to announce their exit from PTI? Or were they just invited for tea in Vigos?

Elections are going to be held in October (postponed from May against the SC verdict), hence PTI needs to be dismantled quickly. So far some of the PTI leaders have quit, with ‘no’ coercion, but the forward bloc is not coming through. The optics of PTI banned altogether doesn’t look good. Guess it’s work in progress, by the PTI leaders themselves, right.

That guy is high on something and has been for a while. He ignores everything that go's on and blindly supports a fascist government and its military backers.

 

[Finer]

Do you understand that there is a difference between facts and judgement? Facts are absolute and exist independently. Infact (pun intented), facts are the basis of any sound judgement. When you are reporting, your job is to present the facts, the judgement is made by the readers.

If you are talking about verified facts which is impossible due to lacks of concrete evidence. What we have is propaganda news that sells and shortcut to profits.

If news media are to rely on verified facts backed by concrete evidence, they would be out of business a lot sooner.

Verified facts are slow and lengthy which are not practical for news media; hence the court takes forever to pass the verdict.