Just like that. Pakistan has this reoccurring problem.
For the record: Pakistan generally seems unstable. Imran Khan’s rise to the top was questionable. To many cooks (metaphorically speaking) especially outside influencers, spoiling the soup. The military has a bit too much power and highly questionable loyalties. Pakistan in many ways makes me think of Turkey with it’s repeated coups and questionable military ties to NATO. Which led Erdogan to purge the military of those most closely linked to NATO and the Gulen network (CIA)
The leader prior to Khan, Nawaz Sharif, was toppled in a questionable way. And the man anticipated to take the helm is brother to Nawaz Sharif.
Dynastic Political Families
Imran Khan has been dismissed as Pakistan’s prime minister after losing a no-confidence vote, paving the way for an unlikely opposition alliance that faces the same issues that bedevilled Khan.
A new premier will be chosen on Monday, with centrist Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) chief Shehbaz Sharif already anointed to lead the nuclear-armed nation of 220 million people.
His first task will be to form a cabinet that will also draw heavily from the centre-left Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), as well as find space for the smaller conservative Jamiatul Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) group.
The PPP and PML-N are dynastic parties that have dominated Pakistani politics for decades – usually as bitter rivals – and their relations are sure to fray in the lead-up to the next election, which must be held by October 2023.
Shehbaz Sharif is the brother of former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, while PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is the son of former president Asif Ali Zardari and assassinated ex-premier Benazir Bhutto.
She was assassinated December 27, 2007
Background info from BBC:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42409374
Was Imran Khan’s Outreach to Russia a Factor in His Removal at this time?
https://thediplomat.com/2022/03/what-is-driving-pakistans-outreach-to-russia/
What Is Driving Pakistan’s Outreach to Russia?
Following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Islamabad is betting that Russia is the best guarantor of its interest in the South and Central Asia region.
Many political analysts questioned the timing of the visit, as it presumably gave the wrong signals about where Pakistan stood diplomatically in the Russia-versus-West confrontation. A dominant theme running in the print and electronic media in Pakistan was that Khan’s visit was planned months in advance, that it was for concluding the negotiations over gas pipeline construction, and that it had nothing to do with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
After the visit, Pakistan’s stance at the international forums suggested neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine war. Abstaining from the U.N. General Assembly draft resolution condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine, Pakistan maintained that endorsing the resolution would close the doors to diplomacy. In an earlier press release of the Khan-Putin meeting, Pakistan had urged for a negotiated settlement to the military conflict.
Recently, Khan launched a verbal offensive against the European Union ambassadors in Islamabad, as they had urged Pakistan through a public statement to denounce Russia’s war in Ukraine. Khan said that Pakistan was not a slave to follow orders from any country. This reaction was an extension of Khan’s earlier instances of resistance against the U.S.-led drone campaign in Pakistan and Washington’s with-us-or-against-us diktat. Khan instead questioned the West’s position on India’s human rights violations in its administered part of Kashmir.
Read the information at links provided and share some thoughts?
4 replies on “Imran Khan Ousted in Pakistan”
My thoughts are. That I have no idea what to make out of all this.
I know somewhat about the different factors in play. But when it comes to producing thoughts in this matter its all static.
I’m with you on this Kaz.
At this moment I’ve no idea what to make of this other then it serves the cause of instability- which does not serve the Pakistani people.
I’m certain of that.
I’m not buying any of the mainstream blather on this one, Pen. I used to blog about Pakistan all the time (and read all their daily papers every day, and so on). Although your comparison with Turkey is a good one in many ways, the situation there is very different in some key respects ).
I agree with you 100% that this is not good for Pakistan.
I have great respect for Imran Khan. He had already done more good for his country than any politician in the country’s history, before he even became a politician. As a political leader, he has his shortcomings, as they all do, but he has shown more understanding of the bogus nature of the “war on terror” than any of the others and this surely makes him very inconvenient for the USA / NATO and all the terror-war-profiteers.
Meanwhile: I do not trust any of the Bhuttos, nor any of the Sharifs. There have been too many shenanigans going back generations, in both families and both political parties / dynasties. Benazir’s assassination, her return to Pakistan, the context of that, all reeked of bogus. Same with Sharif’s return, his ascent to power … it’s all family-connected and back-room-arranged and their descendants are just steeped in it … and they’re all (quite easily) manipulated by the same terror-war forces alluded to above … so this is not good for Pakistan nor is it good for anyone else really … except the propaganda warriors and the profiteers.
Hey Winter!
Instability is never good for the people or the region. To my knowledge Pakistan was to be divided up. (That was a plan and I recall seeing maps) Afghanistan was to grow- One part of Pakistan was too be sectioned off- was it Baluchistan.
And the CIA has been operating there for a very long time
I could go back to 9/11 of course.
Instability sows the seeds of discord- discord sows instability like a vicious circle- always the people suffer