Because they can. And they aren't going to take chances
CLOWN ARTICLE
What’s that lurking in his latest video? An image of Khan gladhanding Vladimir Putin, even as the Russian president rained bombs on Ukraine
Pity Prisoner 804, currently languishing in a rat-infested Pakistani jail. In his latest brilliant piece of PR, Imran Khan, the former world-class cricketer turned politician, is pictured staring through the bars of a cell, hands clasped as if in silent prayer.
Juxtaposing clips of his proudest moments as the 22nd prime minister of Pakistan with images of Punjab’s notorious Attock prison, a dramatic new social media video portrays him as a martyr paying a terrible price for his patriotism. According to the voiceover, Khan, who went to school in Worcester and studied at Oxford before becoming an international sports star and marrying a British socialite, “gave up his life of comfort” to “awaken the nation,” selflessly setting up cancer hospitals and campaigning for the poor.
He is credited with teaching Pakistanis to “stand up for their rights and rise against tyranny”, and taking on “all the mafias”. “These are big crimes,” says the narrator sardonically, painting our hero as such a threat to the forces of evil in Pakistan that he had to be silenced.
As Khan tries to figure out how to overturn a three-year jail sentence for corruption that bars him from returning to politics for five years, this clever video has gone viral. On TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, it has prompted an outpouring of support from many ordinary voters, who continue to believe Khan (who leads the country’s main opposition party, Tehreek-e-Insaf) is the answer to their country’s chronic political instability and deepening economic and social woes. They call him the “PM of hearts” and weep over his ill-treatment.
His conviction is seen as no stain on his character. But the video is not just aimed at a domestic audience: it is designed to impress those in the West, where casual observers of Pakistan’s bewildering political scene can be forgiven for assuming that he must at the very least be the best of a bad lot.
After all, he has a fine English education, looks and sounds the part, and is impeccably connected to British high society via his first marriage to Jemima Goldsmith. It is natural to imagine that he shares our values. Certainly, he deserves credit for entering public life when he could have simply kicked back and enjoyed his fame and wealth.
But hang on a minute! Who’s that lurking in the video? Do I spy an image of Khan gladhanding Vladimir Putin, even as the Russian president rained bombs on Ukraine? Of all the many pictures his spin doctors could have selected of their man on the world stage, they chose this one, as well as an image of their leader meeting Xi Jinping, the Chinese president. What a blunder – and what a disturbing insight into Khan’s new allegiances, now he has left his colourful playboy past behind.
Once upon a time, he loved being photographed with scantily clad beauties. These days he is an ultra devout Muslim, who seems to think that rape victims are partly to blame for “wearing very few clothes”.
Beneath the smooth surface lurk darker sides to Mr Khan. For all his huffing and puffing about abuse of power in Pakistan, his period in office was marred by allegations of political persecutions and theatrical stunts designed to make him look more popular than he is.
Far more worrying for the West than this stuff (quite the norm in Pakistan) is his well documented sympathy for the Taliban, his insistence that there is “no such thing as radical Islam” and his campaign, during the pandemic, for the lifting of sanctions on Iran. Worse still is his courtship of Russia and China.
Within weeks of his ill-judged February 2022 meeting in Moscow, he was thrown out of power, following a no-confidence vote he tried to block by dissolving parliament. A sensational report by The Intercept claims that a leaked Pakistani government document shows his deposal was actively encouraged by the US State Department. No wonder! As the West united to support Ukraine, what was he doing gravitating towards the Kremlin?
While his supporters wring their hands over his plight, others may be relieved that this complex character no longer has his finger on a nuclear button.
Isabel Oakeshott is international editor of Talk TV
Imran Khan isn’t a martyr for freedom. He’s a friend of the West’s worst enemies
What’s that lurking in his latest video? An image of Khan gladhanding Vladimir Putin, even as the Russian president rained bombs on Ukraineweb.archive.org
@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 @Sayfullah @Clutch @Bleek @mangochutney @FuturePAF @Cash GK @Black.Mamba
Ayub Khan
Bajwa didn't overthrow Nawaz Sharif's government. He only manipulated elections to select Niazi sahab with a plan to keep him in power for at least 10 years. And which government has Asim Munir overthrown or manipulated ?
First, Bajwa manipulated the elections AGAINST the PTI to ensure IK had a razor thin majority precisely so he could pull the shit he did to overthrow the PTI. Munir has gone several steps ahead and openly flouted the court’s and constitution to abduct, torture and imprison PTI leaders, workers, supporters and journalists to try and prevent the PTI from winning a landslide in free and fair elections.
No, i don't think it is acceptable, but i don't understand how you can compare Generals like Ayub, Zia and Mushy who dethroned civilian governments to take power for themselves with Asim Munir who has neither removed nor installed any government yet.
They know they don't have support in KP
Whether an overt Martial Law like Ayub, Yahya, Zia, Musharraf or or a shadow one like the rest, it is a vioaltion of the constitution and the oath members of the Army take and it continues to prevent democracy and civilian institutions from becoming stronger.
Historically he has every time since 1983 except 2018 when her got 65% seats in central punjab
Sure, Pakistani army has always been involved in politics. Sikander Mirza removed multiple governments with Ayub's support. Zulfikar Bhutto, Benazir and Nawaz Sharif all had their governments toppled by the army, but aren't things getting better from the perspective of the army's interference ? The PTI govt fell because it lost the support of the majority of MNAs. What should Bajwa have done ? Should he have ordered MQM and other parties to vote for PTI like Imran wanted ? Should he have ordered Arif Alvi to dissolve the NA even though Shahbaz Sharif had a majority ?
Stupid article. Why should his handshake with Putin concern her so much that she has to ascribe evil to him? And there is no requirement that a PM of Pakistan has to be friend of the "West". It is perfectly fine if they mind their business and take care of their country. I think IK was not a skilled politician to navigate the Pakistani power labyrinth and was also too emotional to take rational decisions based on cold calculated logic. May be that was because of his wife's 'advice'. His/her desire for fancy goods at cheap prices also hurt his image as a man of unquestioned integrity.CLOWN ARTICLE
What’s that lurking in his latest video? An image of Khan gladhanding Vladimir Putin, even as the Russian president rained bombs on Ukraine
Pity Prisoner 804, currently languishing in a rat-infested Pakistani jail. In his latest brilliant piece of PR, Imran Khan, the former world-class cricketer turned politician, is pictured staring through the bars of a cell, hands clasped as if in silent prayer.
Juxtaposing clips of his proudest moments as the 22nd prime minister of Pakistan with images of Punjab’s notorious Attock prison, a dramatic new social media video portrays him as a martyr paying a terrible price for his patriotism. According to the voiceover, Khan, who went to school in Worcester and studied at Oxford before becoming an international sports star and marrying a British socialite, “gave up his life of comfort” to “awaken the nation,” selflessly setting up cancer hospitals and campaigning for the poor.
He is credited with teaching Pakistanis to “stand up for their rights and rise against tyranny”, and taking on “all the mafias”. “These are big crimes,” says the narrator sardonically, painting our hero as such a threat to the forces of evil in Pakistan that he had to be silenced.
As Khan tries to figure out how to overturn a three-year jail sentence for corruption that bars him from returning to politics for five years, this clever video has gone viral. On TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, it has prompted an outpouring of support from many ordinary voters, who continue to believe Khan (who leads the country’s main opposition party, Tehreek-e-Insaf) is the answer to their country’s chronic political instability and deepening economic and social woes. They call him the “PM of hearts” and weep over his ill-treatment.
His conviction is seen as no stain on his character. But the video is not just aimed at a domestic audience: it is designed to impress those in the West, where casual observers of Pakistan’s bewildering political scene can be forgiven for assuming that he must at the very least be the best of a bad lot.
After all, he has a fine English education, looks and sounds the part, and is impeccably connected to British high society via his first marriage to Jemima Goldsmith. It is natural to imagine that he shares our values. Certainly, he deserves credit for entering public life when he could have simply kicked back and enjoyed his fame and wealth.
But hang on a minute! Who’s that lurking in the video? Do I spy an image of Khan gladhanding Vladimir Putin, even as the Russian president rained bombs on Ukraine? Of all the many pictures his spin doctors could have selected of their man on the world stage, they chose this one, as well as an image of their leader meeting Xi Jinping, the Chinese president. What a blunder – and what a disturbing insight into Khan’s new allegiances, now he has left his colourful playboy past behind.
Once upon a time, he loved being photographed with scantily clad beauties. These days he is an ultra devout Muslim, who seems to think that rape victims are partly to blame for “wearing very few clothes”.
Beneath the smooth surface lurk darker sides to Mr Khan. For all his huffing and puffing about abuse of power in Pakistan, his period in office was marred by allegations of political persecutions and theatrical stunts designed to make him look more popular than he is.
Far more worrying for the West than this stuff (quite the norm in Pakistan) is his well documented sympathy for the Taliban, his insistence that there is “no such thing as radical Islam” and his campaign, during the pandemic, for the lifting of sanctions on Iran. Worse still is his courtship of Russia and China.
Within weeks of his ill-judged February 2022 meeting in Moscow, he was thrown out of power, following a no-confidence vote he tried to block by dissolving parliament. A sensational report by The Intercept claims that a leaked Pakistani government document shows his deposal was actively encouraged by the US State Department. No wonder! As the West united to support Ukraine, what was he doing gravitating towards the Kremlin?
While his supporters wring their hands over his plight, others may be relieved that this complex character no longer has his finger on a nuclear button.
Isabel Oakeshott is international editor of Talk TV
Imran Khan isn’t a martyr for freedom. He’s a friend of the West’s worst enemies
What’s that lurking in his latest video? An image of Khan gladhanding Vladimir Putin, even as the Russian president rained bombs on Ukraine
@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 @Sayfullah @Clutch @Bleek @mangochutney @FuturePAF @Cash GK @Black.Mamba
