Editorial note:
Pakistan is a country with many faces. Contemporary political events portray it as a courageous warrior confronting Indian aggression; as a strategic bridge between China and Central Asia; as a mediator between Iran and the United States; or as a nuclear-armed partner of Turkey and Saudi Arabia—prestigious roles, to say the least!
But the Pakistani people know that the face of Pakistan that most truly embodies the nation today bears the name of Imran Khan. The country’s current leaders know it too—and they have spared no political, military, media, or judicial means in their relentless persecution of him.
The removal of Imran Khan, the former Pakistani prime minister, by parliament in 2022—against the will of the people and, according to Khan himself, at the behest of the United States—has done nothing to diminish the immense popularity of the former cricket star. Quite the contrary: his popularity has continued to grow, making it all the more troubling for the country’s current rulers precisely because it has grown in tandem with the persecution he has endured—including an assassination attempt.
A level of popularity that, incidentally, is enough to make the leaders of the Atlantic bloc salivate—yet none of them have seen fit to denounce his relentless persecution.
Lama El Horr
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Khan has been jailed on corruption charges since 2022 following a US-backed coup to oust him as prime minister
Pakistan’s police have detained the three sisters of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan ahead of mass protests to demand his release, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported on 21 September.
Khan, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party leader and former cricket star, has been jailed since August 2023 on corruption charges that he and his supporters say are politically motivated.
The PTI has called for a mass march in the capital, Islamabad, on 27 September, with Khan’s release from prison as a central demand.
On Sunday, his sister Aleema Khan was detained at her residence in Lahore under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) law as part of a crackdown ahead of the protest.
PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram denounced the arrests. Akram said Aleema Khan was detained “because she refused to stay silent about her brother’s illegal detention, solitary confinement, and denial of medical care.”
Aleema and her children were taken to an unknown place in an armored vehicle, Akram added.
Khan’s other two sisters, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi, were detained later on Sunday after holding a press conference to denounce their sister’s detention. The three sisters’ children were also detained.
Khan’s son Kasim said police broke into his relatives’ homes and forced them into vehicles without explanation.
“This is criminal behavior. Inexcusable,” he wrote on X on Sunday.
The sisters’ detentions have been challenged in the Lahore High Court, Aleema’s lawyer Rana Mudassar Umer said.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi demanded that the PTI cancel Sunday’s march.
“They cannot achieve anything through such drama. I will say again today that there is still time. Don’t get into a situation from which there is no turning back,” Naqvi said.
In May, a secret Pakistani diplomatic cable was published for the first time confirming that a senior US diplomat insisted on the removal of Imran Khan from his position as prime minister in 2022.
According to the cable, revealed by Drop Site News, Donald Lu, then US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, told Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington, Asad Majeed Khan, that “all will be forgiven” if the former premier was removed through a no-confidence vote in parliament.
Khan was ousted as prime minister in a legislative coup six weeks after the cable was sent, on 9 April 2022. Khan revealed the existence of the cable at that time, claiming his removal was part of a “US-backed regime-change operation.”
(The Cradle via Orinoco Tribune)
