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Former cricketer, National Assembly member, head of Tehreek-e-Inaf (Pakistan Movement for Justice – PTI – an anti-mainstream party in contrast to dominating Pakistani ones from inception), Imran Kahn looks poised to be his nation’s next prime minister.
Independent analyst Mahboob Khan (MK below) praised him, saying he’s “the ONLY leader in the history of Pakistan who has genuinely worked his way up to the top.”
Instead of allying with mainstream politics, he declined offers to go another way. He “wanted to change the system that was destroying the country,” said MK, adding:
He “want(s) to uplift the life of (ordinary) Pakistan(is) as his own mother, Shaukat Khanum, lost her life to breast cancer since there was no quality hospital in Pakistan to treat such patients…because the rulers and the filthy rich opt to go abroad for their medical treatment.”
MK said Khan “chose to fight the cabal of corrupt politicians alone,” a near impossible daunting task never before achieved.
“(H)e is the best man, the only man for the job” of Pakistani prime minister, MK believes.
He seeks peaceful coexistence with India, deplores endless US war on neighboring Afghanistan, and wants America’s exploitation of his country ended.
Unofficial results show Kahn holds a commanding plurality lead over Shehbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto, his two main rivals for prime minister.
Unofficial results show his party won 116 of 272 contestable seats, compared to Sharif’s 63 and and Bhutto’s 43 – 45 other candidates winning parliamentary seats – 137 needed for a majority. Short of it requires coalition government.
Kahn’s party winning more contestable seats than his two major rivals combined justifies his claim to be Pakistan’s next prime minister.
In declaring victory, he said:
“Thank god we have been successful and got a mandate.”
Following a unanimous Supreme Court ruling to remove him from office on corruption charges, defrocked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigned last July.
Weeks earlier, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He and family members were charged with laundering government funds to pay for four luxury apartments in central London’s exclusive Park Lane area.
Rigging charges followed Wednesday’s election. Scrupulously free, fair and open ones are uncommon in the West and most other countries.
In Pakistan, losing parties often cry fraud, likely so in a military-run nation since its artificial creation in 1947. Yet Khan’s commanding lead is too great to deny him the office he won.
Ruled as a US-vassal state from inception, it’s been called a military with a country, not the other way around.
US forces operate out of Pakistani bases with de facto control of its airspace to terror-bomb parts of the country and neighboring Afghanistan.
As prime minister of a coalition government ahead, Khan’s best efforts aren’t likely to change how Pakistan has always been run, other than perhaps modestly around the edges.
Benazir Bhutto’s 2007 assassination contributed to the country’s destabilization. So has its alliance with Washington’s global war OF terror, not on it.
Challenging the status quo could lead to Khan’s elimination. The same is true for leaders in most countries seeking positive change – in the West and elsewhere.
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Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the CRG, Correspondent of Global Research based in Chicago.
VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
