Pakistan's Poisonous Politics

Pakistan’s politics were plenty toxic even before the failed assassination against ousted former Prime Minister Imran Khan. When Khan was removed from power following a parliamentary vote of no confidence in April, he claimed Pakistan’s military and its friends in Washington wanted to silence him. He then kicked off a series of protest marches that have drawn massive crowds.

In October, Khan insinuated that the army had killed a journalist, an uncharacteristically blunt frontal assault on Pakistan’s army, and the country’s head of military intelligence felt compelled to call an unprecedented public press conference to deny the charge. Officials in the current government, led by Shehbaz Sharif, accused Khan of terrorism, illegally receiving money from foreigners, and other forms of financial fraud. Then, during a protest rally earlier this month, Khan was shot in the leg, some of his supporters were wounded, and one was killed.

It’s all part of a three-way fight between Pakistan’s current government, its powerful and politically meddlesome military, and Khan, a former cricket star and playboy who governed as a supporter of Muslim fundamentalism. Khan blamed the attempt to kill him on Prime Minister Sharif, the Interior Minister, and a senior military officer. If some Pakistanis who doubted past charges of conspiracy find them more plausible now that shots have been fired, critics within the government have accused Khan of staging the shooting to discredit Sharif and win sympathy.

The suspected gunman provided conflicting accounts of his own motives before finally settling on “blasphemy” as Khan’s unpardonable offense. Khan himself claims there was more than one shooter. The government and military are dragging their feet on launching a formal investigation. Even with one, the mysteries surrounding this event are unlikely ever to be solved, and each side will believe the version of events it chooses to credit.

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
3 University of Virginia football players killed in shooting; hundreds mourn on campus Monday night   John Bacon ,  Charles Ventura ,  Jane Onyanga-Omara ,  Jorge L. Ortiz    L. Ortiz       CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia lifted a campuswide lockdown Monday hours after three students were killed and two injured in a shooting rampage on a charter bus that had returned from a field trip, authorities said. Killed were D’Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler, all of whom played football at the school, university president Jim Ryan said. The names of the two people who were wounded have not been released.  "This is a sad, shocking and tragic day for our UVA community," Ryan said at a news briefing Monday, adding that authorities did not have a “full understanding” of the circumstances surrounding the shooting. The suspected shooter, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., is ...
Read more
Image
  Joyland: Pakistan bans Oscar contender film about trans love affair Islamic groups denounce film that won prestigious jury prize at Cannes and has Malala Yousafzai as executive director The Pakistan government has banned the film that will be its Oscars contender after pressure from hardline Islamic groups who called its depiction of a love affair between a man and a trans woman “repugnant” and “highly objectionable”. Joyland, directed by Saim Sadiq, had been submitted as Pakistan’s official entry for best international feature film at the Oscars and was due for domestic release this week. The film tells the story of a Haider, a young married man from a middle-class family in Lahore, who joins an erotic dance theatre and falls in love with Biba, a transgender performer . The film had garnered glowing praise on the festival circuit for its tender and critical depiction of Pakistan’s patriarchal society. It was the first Pakistani feature to be an official selection a...
Read more