Imran Khan at his residence in Lahore, Pakistan on Tuesday.
Saad Sarfraz Sheikh for NPR
hide captions
switch captions
Saad Sarfraz Sheikh for NPR
Imran Khan at his residence in Lahore, Pakistan on Tuesday.
Saad Sarfraz Sheikh for NPR
Imran Khan, the populist prime minister who was ousted in Pakistan this spring, said he was intensifying protests against his removal.
Khan and his supporters have staged protests since Pakistan’s parliament ousted him in a vote of no confidence in April. Refusing to accept his defeat, he asked his followers to organize demonstrations while gathering in the capital, Islamabad. During one such protest on November 3, Khan was shot in the leg.
Khan spoke to NPR from his home in Lahore while recovering from his injuries. He said his rejection of defeat was a fight for “the rule of law” and an attempt to prevent Pakistan from becoming “a banana republic”. He is asking the government to hold elections soon, instead of waiting until the time scheduled for late next year.
Leaders of the current government describe Khan himself as a threat to democracy, who has degraded democratic norms while in office and is now seeking to overturn the majority vote. Congressional. The current foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has defendant khan of “post-reality, alternative reality politics.”
The truth, as both sides know, is complicated. Pakistan holds democratic elections and has had a somewhat free press – but also suffers from corruption and repression of free speech. Civilian governments are strongly influenced by the military, which is said to spy on journalists and shape elections. In a few days, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will appoint a new army commander – a difficult decision, closely watched in Islamabad, because the army commander is believed to have more power than the prime minister.
Khan ranks among the most famous living Pakistanis, a former politician turned cricket star who once risked his life against a military dictatorship. But when his party won elections in 2018, many assumed he had reached an agreement with the military. “Without the military relying on the electoral process itself… there is no way Imran Khan could have become prime minister,” said Mosharaf Zaidi, an analyst in Islamabad. He added that Khan was removed this spring because he “insulted those bosses.”
Khan has accused both the civilian prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, and a Pakistani general of being involved in his shooting. The government has condemned the shooting and has taken into custody at least one suspect.
Political strife has added to the instability of a country already facing natural disasters. Massive floods this summer have left much of Pakistan under water and its economy almost collapsed.
On Tuesday, he spoke with NPR’s Steve Inskeep. What follows is part of their conversation, edited for length.
Steve Inskeep: Why are you asking for an election right away instead of waiting until the end of next year?
Imran Khan: The economy is sinking. The dollar, earned through remittances and exports, is all going down. So basically, Pakistan is staring at default… And the sooner we hold elections, [the sooner] the birth of a stable government will lead to political stability, from which there will be an opportunity for Pakistan to come out of this mess.
But a majority of the MPs… who were elected to those positions, and some of them your allies, voted of no confidence. Why not accept that as a constitutional outcome? That’s the system you have.
Imran Khan: The problem, Steve, is unfortunately in Pakistan, parliamentary democracy is still evolving. So when you have an unprecedented situation in the Anglo-Saxon parliamentary democracies, where you can actually buy the loyalty of the people, and I’m talking about the 24 members of Congress who have committed themselves. sell yourself… So that in itself means that the whole idea of democracy is flawed.
Aren’t these people who were once your allies who were supposed to be pushed towards you?
Two different things. One, they are allies. But they also sold themselves.
You mentioned the need for stability. Is it in the country’s best interest at this time to focus on your cause and protest, instead of focusing on the country’s more pressing issues and running in next year’s election? ?
Imran Khan: Well, Steve, if we wait until next year’s election, our party only gets stronger when the government is weak. We are gaining from economic inefficiencies but the country is sinking. My only worry is that in the year remaining, the country could be pushed to the point of spiraling out of control. That might be impossible to pull it back.
Do you believe you will be able to work with the military if you return to power, since you have accused at least one member of the military of conspiring to kill you?
Well, you know, the military has its own good and bad… I think the military realizes that. I think members of the military make mistakes.
You have said in recent months that you feel a foreign conspiracy is responsible for your overthrow. You also said in recent days that you no longer blame the United States. People say you changed your story, although looking closely at the quotes, I’m not sure you really did. Do you mean that the US is not responsible or are you merely saying that you will let it go?
Is it because my government is gone that I have to hold a grudge against America forever? No, because it’s not about me. It’s about my country… We have to move forward, and we have to have a new kind of relationship with America, which I’ve always said. Unfortunately, our relationships in the past have been very deviant. There was indeed a kind of very demeaning master-slave relationship that humiliated the Pakistani people.
