Finally.
It’s taken almost 2 years, but finally a mainstream, highly respected American writer speaks the truth about the US removing Imran Khan from power, something that was obvious from the beginning. Prof. Jeffrey Sachs is not an ordinary figure in the Western intelligentsia. But it is notable that his words have fallen in an alternative publication, not one of the many disgraced mainstream media entities of the West.
Here is an interview he gave about this same article, and about the shenanigans of this ghastly American empire in Ukraine, Pakistan and Israel.
[Khan’s] popularity, independence, and enormous talents make him a prime target of the U.S., which frets about popular leaders who don’t fall into line with U.S. policy.
JEFFREY D. SACHS
Have cued the video to his thoughts on the shameful removal of Imran Khan.
(If you want to hear his personal thoughts about Imran Khan, please go to 13-27. It may surprise you, if you are an ignorant victim of your own biases.).
Whether Biden, easily the worst American President in over 50 years, had a direct role to play in this, or his “deep state” handlers did, finally this can no longer be hidden. Imran Khan is also one of the most powerful Muslim voices in the world (in terms of pure numbers, probably the most popular Muslim figure in the world) and his kangaroo court incarceration with the pretty overt involvement of the US is playing with the kind of fire that is unprecedented. This is not just a Pakistani matter anymore, just like Gaza isn’t just a Palestinian one.
The reality of Pakistan is that the military needs the US to subsidise it, who happily do it for greater US control of that region. Imran Khan’s public assertions that he would not humour the US anymore in that regard, and would make Pakistan more neutral, more independent, led to both his own military and the US colluding to remove him. Only problem – his popularity surged and reached levels that they couldn’t have imagined. So, they set out to destroy his party and him personally as well.
His party has been systematically destroyed, by terrorising and jailing its members, about 9000 of whom are either in jail or in hiding. Imran Khan himself is in jail for about 200 cases, all of which are flimsy and untenable. Through corrupt means, they colluders have managed to sentence him to 31 years in prison (including in a personal case of his marriage being illegal, an attempt to sully his name on religious and moral grounds), all cases where even after all the limits of corruption are pushed, they will be thrown out straightaway on appeal. Khan’s wife has also been sentenced, as well his #2 in PTI Shah Mahmood Qureshi. These are kangaroo courts, which the US is turning a blind eye to, because it obviously suits their interests.
It is all up to February 8th then, when Pakistan votes. The most important election in Pakistan’s history, as many are now saying. There are 313 female candidates this time standing for election – the highest female representation in Pakistani elections till date. They’re standing mostly as independents, representing Imran Khan. There are 57 million young voters (between 18-35) who hardly vote in elections, but 70% of whom are expected to vote for Imran Khan’s representatives. Despite 40,000 of the 90,000 polling stations deemed sensitive, that is, with violence expected to erupt around them. Despite police in some quarters expected to intimidate people from voting.
The election is supposed to be a mockery; a selection, not an election, but these very people can change that. Everything depends on how much of their population comes out to vote (usually, it is between 47-55%). Despite Imran Khan’s name being banned from being mentioned on TV, despite the PTI symbol having been banned (again, on a very flimsy pretext), the conservative estimate is that 75-80% people will vote for the independent candidates who their constituencies know are representing Imran Khan on symbols like sheep or donkeys or donkey carts – the only symbols allotted to them. It is not clear whether there is clarity among them in that chaos as to which candidates represent them and whose symbol is what.
Otherwise, the stage is set for Nawaz Sharif (called Humpty Dumpty now by some, a perfect description) to come back as PM, which will be a mockery of law, both international and Pakistani. And a severe indictment of the US too, for having sided with blatant criminality over the obvious democratic choice. But the world is used to the US government doing things like this for decades now. What’s new in this situation is how the entire “democratic” Western media has chosen to look the other way completely. As has the Indian media – even the supposedly “independent’ factions of it. Or are indulging in false equivalences – comparing Sharif’s previous indictment in 2018 to Khan’s now is so fundamentally flawed, and absurd, yet many in the media are happily indulging in it.
The common American citizen, smug and ignorant (including those of Indian origin), consuming their wilfully duplicitous mainstream media, should realise that they will be held responsible someday for their government’s evil. Just like Israeli citizens are now, for what is going on in Gaza, for what has gone on for 75 years in those quarters. If this doesn’t stop soon, those American citizens should probably brace themselves for events of a magnitude where 9/11 will seem like a minor incident. The crimes of their government cannot be hidden anymore.
