Analysis: Pakistani youth gives scathing rebuke to military elite in support of jailed leader Khan

islamabad, pakistan
CNN
—

His political party will be effectively banned, he will be banned from speaking on television, and he could be sentenced to at least 14 years in prison. But as Pakistan’s election results show, Imran Khan cannot be restrained.

The Election Commission announced on Sunday that independent candidates belonging to former prime minister’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party (PTI) won the most seats in last week’s national elections.

This is a remarkable victory for Mr. Khan, who has been in prison. Mr Khan faced a dramatic ouster as prime minister two years ago, and more recently in what analysts say is a military-led crackdown aimed at preventing the cricketing icon from returning to power. I was facing it.

“You have kept my faith and your massive turnout has surprised everyone,” said an AI-generated video imitating Mr Khan’s voice shared by PTI, which garnered millions of votes immediately after the victory. He said this to his followers. “Now show us how strong you are in defending your vote.” Khan’s team has previously used AI to deliver speeches inside prisons.

The continued success of candidates aligned with Mr. Khan is a major shock to the country’s recent history. Mr. Khan’s close aides and officials said the move was a sharp rebuke to Pakistan’s powerful, usually unreachable military, which has long reigned at the pinnacle of power. Many supporters suppressed his party.

Hashim Ali Dogar, 20, from Lahore, said: “As a Pakistani, I was very encouraged by the collective outcry against the injustice that was revealed through the vote.”

“We have demonstrated resilience in the face of political victimization injustice, and we are ready to do so again.”

Despite PTI-backed independents winning the most seats in parliament, questions have been raised about what Pakistan’s next government will look like.

None of the three major parties have won the necessary seats to declare a parliamentary majority, so they are unable to form a government on their own, leaving it unclear who will be chosen as the country’s next prime minister.

The results were announced more than three days after voting ended, prompting accusations of election fraud from the PTI.

Shayan Bashir Nawaz, PTI’s information chief in Punjab, has called for peaceful protests against delayed results, claiming that an analysis conducted by the party suggested “serious discrepancies” in some parliamentary seats. called out.

“We will take every option, pursue every legal option, pursue every constitutional option to right this wrong,” said senior PTI leader Raof Hassam.

The military “remains committed to maintaining peace and security in this country and stands ready to provide unwavering support to safeguard our country’s democratic traditions,” the military said.

If the PTI-backed candidates succeed in forming a government, Pakistan will enter an unprecedented era in which the ruling party is seemingly at odds with the military, while its leaders remain in detention. .

But Madiha Afzal, a fellow in the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said that “a PTI-led government seems unlikely at this point.” “They will need to join parliamentary parties and seek coalitions… They will also need to ensure that candidates do not switch.”

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state with a population of 220 million, has been in political turmoil since its founding in 1947 following the shocking Partition that hastily divided British India into two independent countries along religious lines.・I have suffered from social instability.

The country suffers from frequent attacks by armed groups, widespread poverty and widespread violence against women. Analysts say decades of corruption and cronyism have undermined the rights of a people seeking a complete break from Pakistan’s past, ruled by political dynasties and military establishments for most of its 76 years. It is analyzed that it was deprived.

Faced with a protracted economic crisis, Pakistan’s many young voters, with a median age of just 22.7 years, perceive Mr. Khan’s PTI as an elite political dynasty that is out of touch with the problems facing the people. It was considered to be a change from

Analysts say when he came to power in 2018, it was with the support of the military. However, just a few years later, when he lost support from his generals and was dramatically ousted from power in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in 2022 due to economic mismanagement, Khan far from retreating and launched an unprecedented rebellion. led.

He has drawn tens of thousands of people to nationwide rallies in the streets, criticizing the military and accusing it of plotting to remove him with U.S. support, though both the military and the U.S. deny the accusations. ing. Millions of people listened to Khan’s emotional online speech about rooting out corruption and bringing about change in Pakistan’s chaotic politics.

His message and clever use of social media inspired many young Pakistanis.

“Everyone knows where their preferences lie. I wanted to cast my first vote for Imran Khan,” said Rabiya Arooji, 22, who voted for the first time from the capital Islamabad.

But as Khan’s popularity grew, so did his enemies, including powerful members of what his supporters claim are military-backed regimes.

He was accused of dozens of charges, arrested and sentenced to prison in three separate cases, shocking the nation. The party’s cricket bat symbol was banned from appearing on ballot papers, prompting accusations of “pre-voting fraud”.

The scale of the crackdown led many analysts to believe that Mr. Khan’s longtime rival, Nawaz Sharif, a three-time former prime minister and scion of the elite Sharif dynasty, would return to the top job.

Hussain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador and scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and the Anwar Gargash Academy of Diplomacy in Abu Dhabi, said: “The election result shows that young Pakistanis are, as always, disillusioned with the military system and politics.” It shows,” he said.

“Young people have made their voices heard,” said Manahil Ahmed, a first-time voter.

“Pakistan has come to one realization that it has always struggled with: that all power truly depends only on their will,” he said.

“Despite all the odds, the feeling that we have won the victory is now deeply ingrained. Deep enough that people have reached the conviction that they will work twice as hard to protect that victory.” That’s it.”

Time is ticking towards the formation of a coalition government, and much of what lies ahead remains uncertain.

Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the other leading candidate in the race and the scion of another political dynasty, said the two parties would work together to bring stability to Pakistan.

Many Pakistanis have mixed feelings about the unknown.

“On the one hand, it is empowering to see young people actively participating and making their voices heard,” said Sundas Kalsoom from Peshawar. “However, delays in election results can be frustrating and lead to uncertainty and skepticism about the fairness of the process.”

Haqqani, a former ambassador, said it would be in Pakistan’s best interest that “the mandate of its people is respected.”

“The worst-case scenario would be violence, repression and backlash similar to what happened in Egypt in the aftermath of the so-called Arab Spring,” he said, referring to the anti-government protests that spread across much of the Middle East in the early 2010s. Ta. .

Despite the uncertainty, analysts say one thing is clear.

“The decisiveness with which Pakistanis voted for the weak says something about the health of our democracy,” said Fahad Humayun, assistant professor of political science and Neubauer faculty fellow at Tufts University.

“Public confidence in this country’s institutions has clearly fluctuated in recent years, but this election, for all its flaws, demonstrated that there was considerable political mobilization around the issue of representation. This should inspire hope for Pakistan’s future.”