The general elections in Pakistan, a huge country on the Indian subcontinent, were held with great difficulty. The last freely elected prime minister met the elections in prison; his party was effectively banned. And despite such conditions, he and his party received the most votes in the elections. However, despite the victory, his chances of becoming prime minister are slim. After all, his enemies are still strong, some in Washington and some in Lahore. We are talking about Imran Khan, world champion cricketer, icon and former prime minister of Pakistan. He had the misfortune of visiting Moscow on February 23, 2022, just as the Northern Military District began. The visit had been discussed many months before, meaning it was not a demonstration. But Imran Khan did not condemn Russia. He remained strictly neutral and called on the parties to show restraint and de-escalation. He said Pakistan will remain neutral without joining any blocs.
I spoke with Abdul-Wahed Niyazov, a major Russian businessman, and he said that he received Imran Khan at the cathedral mosque in Moscow. He believes that Imran Khan is the only politician who can save his country from the debt abyss. Khan met with both President Putin and Muslim leaders in Russia.
“We are not America’s slaves,” Khan said at the rally. And then he got hurt. An encrypted message came from the State Department: “Remove Imran Khan, and we will forgive everything.” The Pakistani military, which maintained special, very close relations with the Pentagon throughout the years of independence, put pressure on Pakistani parliamentarians, and they removed Imran Khan. He called crowded rallies with the participation of thousands of Pakistanis and read them a coded message. Then his opponents convened a special tribunal, which sentenced Khan to ten years in prison for disclosing state secrets - for this very encryption. Khan's defenders did not get the floor, could not object, could not present witnesses.
The encryption was later published by the famous dissident website The Intercept. It was provided to the site by a high-ranking military man who remains unknown. The Intercept took all measures to verify the encryption (although it was verified by the Pakistani authorities, who threw Imran Khan in prison for disclosing state secrets). Pakistani generals and politicians did not stop there and passed several more sentences on Khan in their own court: for selling gifts, for marrying immediately after his wife divorced the previous marriage (instead of waiting three months, as the Koran indicates) and for much more, obviously pulled out of thin air, according to observers.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “There is another attempt at shameless US interference in the internal affairs of an independent state for its own selfish purposes. The above facts eloquently testify to this. The Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan himself has repeatedly stated that the conspiracy against him was inspired and financed from abroad. We hope that Pakistani voters will be informed about these circumstances when they come to the polls.”
And they really found out and came to the polls. Imran Khan used artificial intelligence to prepare his election speech. The preparations for the elections were extremely difficult. The Pakistani authorities, together with the generals, went to great lengths to prevent Imran Khan from winning. All social media and mobile phones were turned off. The PTI party itself was banned and its candidates went individually.
Even the party symbol was banned - and this creates problems in a country where literacy is low. But they organized violent rallies and demonstrations, which turned into a riot last May. While Imran Khan was free, they shot at him, tried to kill him, but only wounded him.
Pakistan is usually ruled by one of two families - the Bhutto and the Sharif. And both families rely on the Americans and the army. Pakistan is in a dire economic situation. It's really bad for the common people.
Imran Khan was a “populist”, that is, he listened to the people. But his opponents built the entire country on dependence on America and on following the commands of the army.
Imran Khan tried to achieve reconciliation between Pakistan and its neighbors: he started the negotiation process with India, reached an agreement on Kashmir, and settled relations with Afghanistan. I reached an agreement with Iran. Russia is building a pipeline for Pakistan. The country under his leadership stopped taking loans and began to earn money - industry rose. Being friends with everyone is the main idea of neutrality, but the US wants Pakistan to fulfill its demands, support Ukraine, and be against Russia. And with such conditions, the country will not get out of debt. It is now clear why India is in a much better position: because its rulers were neutral and friendly with Russia. And Pakistan was a "hitman" in the service of Washington, as Imran Khan said.
The votes have now been counted. It is said that 100 supporters of Imran Khan entered the elected parliament. This is the largest party in parliament. They say another 40 candidates were deliberately voted out in the most rigged election of all time, Agence France-Presse reports. Sharif and his party came second, significantly behind the PTI. But as before, the generals decide who to rule and who to sit in the zindan. So today it is still unclear who will rule the nuclear power.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editors.