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Imran Khan: Pakistan's Savior?
Famous cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan has galvanized the political scene in Pakistan, but is it enough?
"I now present you the man who will save Pakistan."
Former cricket star-turned politician Imran Khan has brought out crowds in unprecedented numbers. [EPA] That's how cricket star-turned politician Imran Khan was introduced to a crowd of more than 100,000 of his supporters on Sunday.
The rally in Karachi, Pakistan's largest and most diverse city, was a crucial test of the vitality of Khan's recent popular surge.
But the crowds poured in and the energy was infectious.
"Imran Khan is the only hope that we have right now," said 28-year-old Shohaid Siddqui as he proudly waved a flag in support of Khan's party, Tehreek-e-Insaf (or Movement for Justice).
His friend, 23-year-old Mohammed Omar added: "We need revolutionary change, and that change will come in the form of Imran Khan."
This hunger for change was echoed by others at the rally including average Pakistanis who have become disillusioned by successive governments that have sunk their country deeper into conflict.
"Our Pakistan is dying. Now, we want someone to come into power and give our country support and do something for Pakistan. This is a new change. Maybe out of this we will get something," said 52-year-old Musarat Jumani.
Khan, who first gained fame after leading his country to win the cricket World Cup in 1992, called his campaign a "good tsunami that will destroy injustice and corruption".
He promises to eliminate all major government corruption within 90 days of taking office.
In a country where the current Prime Minister Asif Ali Zardari has been marred by corruption allegations and is famously referred to as "Mr 10-per cent", Khan's anti-corruption stance has won him support.
He has vowed to turn Pakistan into a "Muslim welfare state", where citizens would get free and equal access to education and healthcare. In speaking about what this might look like, he cited examples of welfare systems in the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries.
Khan has also tapped into anger about Islamabad’s relationship with Washington. He has publicly, and vocally, come out against US drone strikes in Pakistan and called for an end to the country’s dependence on American aid money.
But not everyone agrees that Khan is the answer to the country's ills.
"People have come out here for all the song and dance, for a good time. Yes, he's done that. But do you think all these people really know what he stands for?" wondered one Pakistani.
Saadi Agha, who attended the rally but does not support Khan, says his ideology is "stale".
"It does not offer any new structural changes in Pakistan," Agha says.
But he acknowledges that Khan has re-energised the populace.
"What he's done is revived a dead scene; the masses have come out. If this continues, it's good. I don't think I can remember a rally like this ever happening in Karachi before."
In a city beset by political and ethnic violence, the festival-like atmosphere at the rally was in itself significant.
On October 30, Khan staged a similar rally in his home city of Lahore - that gathering also attracted more than 100,000 people, another historic turnout.
But popularity doesn't always translate into political power.
The majority of Pakistan's voters live in rural areas, dominated by feudal systems that prescribe political loyalty.
So far, this tremendous outpouring of support has only been seen in major urban areas like Karachi and Lahore.
Also, Khan is yet to present a concrete plan of how his party would govern if in power. He has promised to release those details in the coming days.
Additionally, though Khan has been active in the country's political scene for 15 years, the Tehreek-e-Insaf party has only briefly held one seat in parliament.
Whether or not Imran Khan is the man who will "save Pakistan" is yet to be seen. Analysts say that if he is able to keep this momentum going he will become a major political player.
But what is becoming more apparent is that the country is ripe for change.
Pakistanis want someone to get them off their sinking ship.
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20 Comments so far
Show AllSameen Amin: You comment blithely about Imran Khan's desire to create a Muslim welfare state, which I find disconcerting. We don't need another state where religion and politics are fused within government. We don't need the continuance of such states. Period. I don't want my political leaders to preside over legislators who feel it is their religious 'and' political duty to have me act in such a way that it meets with 'their' 'God's approval. Got that?
It is no doubt the case that the corporatocracy sees such fusion states as desirable. Anything that causes chaos and keeps the people divided, distracted, off balance and, presumably, out of their hair is a positive. You seem to agree.
"Ybra"
I spent a while trying to find the words in my comment and then I come back and found I was an echo.
Ok so then by your logic it is fine for Israel to be a Jewish country.
I think that the OP is correct in that we don't need any more religious states and because religious states are so very dangerous to those around them, that yes, we DO have a right to comment. Thanks.
Who is "we"? Are you Pakistani? If not, Khan will not be, and does not want to be, your political leader. He's not proposing YOU do anything.
Period. Got that?
Pakistan has already been an Islamic Republic from the day of its founding. The welfare part is the new part, aligning him with social democratic ideals even if maintaining the identity of the country is Muslim.
Imran Khan has been an articulate critic of the corruption in Pakistan for many years and has always received a minority of voter support. It would be a truly remarkable change on the part of the majority of the people of Pakistan if his message was brought to the forefront.
The biggest problem will not be solved however if Pakistan does not become more than a "Muslim welfare state." The identity of any religious state is an identity of prejudice and will always work against equal justice.
Pakistan and India are each their own worst enemies because of religious prejudice and the NATOmics will do all they can to keep them that way.
I hope Mr. Khan will be able to expand his own vision, even as he is already seeing far beyond the majority of his fellow citizens.
"The biggest problem will not be solved however if Pakistan does not become more than a "Muslim welfare state." The identity of any religious state is an identity of prejudice and will always work against equal justice. "
This depends what the term "Muslim welfare state" means, and what he chooses to emphasise. (for example, despite the scaremongering of some, Turkey has not descended into disaster after the Islamists were elected into power, but has instead become stronger, with the dead hand of the military slowly prised off. I mention Turkey, because it is Turkey that is increasingly becoming the model for Islamists political parties worldwide) .
Pakistan's biggest problem is massive corruption combined with massive avoidance of tax by the ruling elite. Even if they could just get to Indian levels of corruption / tax evasion (which is Khan's initial goal based on stuff that he has said), they will solve a big part of their financial problems.
Even if Imran Khan is able to win elective office, there is still the two 800 lbs. gorillas in the room: the Pakistani military & the ISI. Both have carved out special niches for themselves that runs counter to Khan's 'equality before the law' message. Also, both have shown themselves quite ruthless in the past at protecting their prerogatives.
"I now present you the man who will save Pakistan."
Lives of great men all remind usGreatness takes no easy way,All the heroes of tomorrowAre the heretics of today.Socrates and Galileo,John Brown, Thoreau, Christ and DebsHeard the night cry "Down with traitors!"And the dawn shout "Up the rebs!"Nothing ever seems to bust them —Gallows, crosses, prison bars;Tho’ we try to readjust themThere they are among the stars.Lives of great men all remind usWe can write our names on highand departing leave behind usThumbprints in the FBI.
-- Yip Harburg
Pakistanis want someone to get them off their sinking ship
who loves ya, baby?
Pakistan is not independent. It's part of the corporatocracy, which, by definition means states that are a part of a network of states controlled by the most powerful state within it. Canada is not independent and, in fact, is connected to Pakistan through the corporatocracy that both nations are a part of.
Venezuela and Bolivia, for now, are independent, but are not 'free' to be independent. In other words, The corporatocracy doesn't say "okay" when a nation state wants to listen to the voice of it's people rather than elites (who wrap themselves in flags when it helps them to sell crap, but otherwise don`t care about national borders) and mulitnationals. It doesn`t go away and leave such countries in peace. It comes back again and again until it gets the `right` leadership installed in the recalcitrant government, in that way stealing that country`s government from it`s people so that international capitalism can, by having `their` governments making the rules, continue to be free, or liberated (such liberty being the core of the meaning behind the label neoLIBERAL capitalism).
Those are the basics which only those who are tools of elites, or tools of tools, or just angry buffoons without any ability to learn, will deny. I am not going to get into a flame war with those who freely choose darkness over enlightenment, but I might sometimes riff off of their rants. My words are for others.
"Ybra"
Good reply.
The other day I commented that we now have the corporatists (the NATOmics especially) telling us (by their actions) that Pakistan is on the North Atlantic.
p.s. I do not mean to imply anything (and maybe you already know this), but if you want to break your comments into paragraphs, add < P >, but without any spaces between the three at the front of the beginning letter of each paragraph.
Both your and ybra's replies are pathetic. Do either of you have any idea of what khan wants to do other than what you have read in this article? Have you even heard of him before this article?
If you know more about Imran Khan, we would appreciate your insights, rfloh...
Well for starters, as I said in one of my post upthread, corruption and tax avoidance is a massive problem in Pakistan. If people on CD think that tax avoidance is a serious problem in the US, then, in Pakistan, it is a terminal problem.
Just for an example, Hina Rabbani Khar, currently foreign minister of Pakistan. When she first became foreign minister, when she visited India, she attracted a lot of attention, because she is young and pretty (in her early 30s), dresses in very stylish, and very very expensive designer clothes (Birkin handbags, Jimmy Choo shoes; for those who are unaware, this is stuff that individually, costs at minimum, thousands of dollars, even more than 10k). Some idiotic liberals in the Indian and western media even saw her appointment as a good thing. So what is the issue you ask? She paid the equivalent of about USD40-45 in taxes last year. NO that is NOT a typo. USD45 in taxes. I repeat: USD45 in taxes. This is someone who can afford Birkin handbags, and Jimmy Choo shoes. 45 dollars in taxes for the whole year. Do you, or Ybra, or BirdBrain Alley not think that this is a problem? She is representative of a feudal system, of EXTREME wealth concentration, where Pakistan's resources are monopolised and controlled by a few ruling families.
What does that have to do with Khan? He at least proposes to try to do something about it, or at least, he claims to want to do something about it. He says he wants to start collecting taxes. He isn't trying for the impossible, to get Pakistani tax collection levels to Nordic / Scandinavian levels. For the short term, he just wants to get to Indian levels of tax collection (ie from 9% to 18%, that is tax as a ratio of GDP). Do you not agree that that is a good idea? He says that he wants to tax the rich (such as the Bhuttos, whom "leftists" in the west still weirdly admire) and fight corruption.
Other things: he says wants to have Pakistan stop fighting the "War on Terror", and instead, spend Pakistan's money on development. And in line with that, he wants to stop accepting aid, aid that has gone the enrich the elite, such as the Bhuttos, the Khars. In his opinion, aid, aid from the IMF, the World Bank, impoverishes the poor (of a country), while enriching the rich.
He likes the welfare states (of western Europe), he considers that a mark of a civilised society, and considers the dismantling of the welfare state in the west a big mistake.
Birdbrain: Thanks. Yes, I will try to do the paragraph thing. This site needs fixing in that regard. I just went through this discussion with people here who understand how this site works. Apparently, They didn't build it right. Sometimes your paragraphs don't have to be manually inputted. Sometimes they do. It's very annoying. Of course, The best habit to get into is using the 'preview' button, which will show you 'exactly' how your final post will look. Then you need to apply formatting. For those who don't what that involves, Do a Google search for discussions about it in Common Dreams and you'll find them.
An idiotic reply that fails to address any point raised. A lousy riff. You go on a general rant about corporocracy and the us but fail to address specifically anything that khan wants to do. Do you even have any idea of what he wa? Almost certainly not
nts to do
It's stuck on auto-replay.
Pakistan's problems stem from overpopulation and associated lack of human development. Pakistan's population more than quadrupled since 1950 while literacy is only 60% and its human development index ranges from 55 to 67 depending on the province. Forests have been clear cut and this made recent floods even worse, affecting nearly half the country.
An ancient civilization rose in the Indus region thousands of years ago and then suddenly disappeared. History might be repeating. Pakistan's toxic combination of social chaos and nuclear bombs could make sudden catastrophic collapse almost certain.
That "Corruption" he speaks of means $ to many, many people.
If it appeared that Khan was going to be successful a well laced bomb would take care of him just as it did the previous presidential candidate Ms Bhutto.
Pakistan is wholy corrupt and the American MIC likes it that way.