Fifteen months ago, Imran Jan was shot and wounded while leading a protest march in Pakistan. But civil death came to him this Tuesday, with only nine days left until the general elections, when he was sentenced to ten years in prison "for revelation of official secrets." The closed-door trial, at the hands of a special court set up in the prison, has been described as a "match-fixed" by the former prime minister, who was previously captain of the national cricket team.
The sentence sentences his former Foreign Minister and friend of the Palestinian cause, Shah Mehmud Qureshi, to as many years. In both cases, the magistrates consider it "high treason" that an alleged diplomatic telegram was displayed at rallies by both politicians, for electoral purposes.
It should be remembered that Imran Jan was ousted in a no-confidence motion in April 2022, in which a lot of money changed hands. The then prime minister of the Pakistan Justice Movement (PTI) then denounced that behind the vote there was "a plot by the United States." As background, Jan's meeting with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, a few hours after he launched the invasion of Ukraine (although in reality, Jan had arrived the day before).
The sentence, which is protected by British colonial legislation, considers that, with his statements, Jan had "damaged relations with the United States" and disgraced the Armed Forces and the Pakistani ambassador in Washington, the alleged source of the allegations.
Imran Jan denies this and defends that, with his visit to Moscow, he only intended to defend the pockets of the Pakistanis, in the same way that Narenra Modi's India is importing Russian oil at a discount, in order to refine it and re-export it to Europe and the United States. , with a large profit margin.
Instead, the government that succeeded him, Shehbaz Sharif, agreed to stop subsidizing fuel prices to obtain the umpteenth loan from the International Monetary Fund, of three billion dollars.
Paradoxically, the Pakistani army, which few doubt is behind the current political persecution of Imran Khan, was in the past the institution that contributed most to his political rise. Indeed, the army headquarters in Rawalpindi wanted to ensure that civilians followed its guidelines in Afghanistan, designed to favor a Taliban victory, the loss of Indian influence and the expulsion of foreign troops.
Once these primary objectives have been achieved, the Pakistani Armed Forces have the greatest interest in renewing their decades-long relationship with the United States, if only to be able to better pressure China and modulate the rapprochement between Washington and New Delhi.
It should be noted that Imran Jan, who would have won the general elections on February 8 if he had not been disqualified, has been in jail since last August. The new sentence is added to a previous sentence of three years in prison for profiting from the alleged sale of official gifts. His party, the PTI, says it will appeal the current sentence, just as it has already appealed the previous one.
Meanwhile, Nawaz Sharif, elder brother of Shehbaz Sharif, has returned to Pakistan, after several years as a fugitive for various corruption cases. His goal is to be Prime Minister of Pakistan for the fourth time. He will face the Pakistan People's Party, which is running with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of the assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and former president Asif Ali Zardari and grandson of former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, executed by the military.
The Armed Forces, which so many times boycotted and overthrew the elected governments of the Bhutto and Sharif, now hand them a victory that has nothing to do with the designs of the electorate, which according to polls is still overwhelmingly with Imran Jan. Both political clans They put aside their political differences until last August, in a coalition government led by Shehbaz Sharif. Since then, an interim government has ruled the country whose sole objective should be to prepare for the elections in conditions of cleanliness and equal opportunities.
However, they are going to continue with the flagrant exclusion of the force with the greatest popular appeal, a stain on Pakistani democracy. Even so, once their leader has been disqualified and his initials banned, the PTI candidates will run as independents and have asked their followers to go to the polls en masse. Athlete Imran Jan, 71, refuses to accept that the match is over.
