🧵: The silence over Imran Khan’s recent politically motivated imprisonment shows that the US and Britain “have always preferred to deal with dictators who are pliable to their interests”, argues @obornetweets in his latest column ⤵️
middleeasteye.net
middleeasteye.net
When Russian dissident Alexei Navalny received an additional jail sentence of 19 years in a penal colony last week, the US and Britain were “quite rightly”, swift to condemn the move, Oborne writes
Three days later, Imran Khan - until last year, the democratically elected prime minister of Pakistan - was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, but there was “no US condemnation of Khan's politically motivated trial”, writes Oborne
“Khan is probably the least corrupt politician - admittedly not a high bar - in Pakistan's modern history. He represents a reversion to the early school of post-independence politician”
✍️ Peter Oborne
✍️ Peter Oborne
However, Oborne argues that Pakistan’s history of presidents - dictators who have been “pliable” to US and British interests - installed by military coups and ruling with iron fists, “proves that the US is hostile to any Pakistani political leader with a democratic mandate”
“Khan sought to end the country's status as a client state of the US,” Oborne notes, “by challenging the deeply corrupt, dynastic two-party system that has dominated Pakistani politics for more than half a century”
While head of the opposition, Khan “fought a lonely battle against the US's brutal war on terror, condemning drone strikes and standing up for the rule of law”, Oborne writes.
“He stuck to his principles and fell afoul of the US in the process”
“He stuck to his principles and fell afoul of the US in the process”
Even once he was in power, he remained a thorn in the flesh of the US.
“I trace his demise to the fall of Kabul in August 2021, when Khan clashed with Washington over the freezing of Afghan state assets, and the American desire for access to Pakistani airspace,” Oborne argues
“I trace his demise to the fall of Kabul in August 2021, when Khan clashed with Washington over the freezing of Afghan state assets, and the American desire for access to Pakistani airspace,” Oborne argues
Imran Khan is today the most popular politician in the country, and polls indicate that he would sweep to victory in any free and fair election, Oborne notes.
“Holding an election in Pakistan without Khan would be like putting on Shakespeare's Hamlet without the prince”
“Holding an election in Pakistan without Khan would be like putting on Shakespeare's Hamlet without the prince”
“Whoever wins an election without Khan would carry zero political legitimacy, and be despised as the local client ruler, ruling on behalf of the United States”
✍️ Peter Oborne
✍️ Peter Oborne
Khan has joined the long list of democratically legitimate national leaders who had the temerity to affect the US by striking out with an independent foreign policy, writes Oborne.
The silence of the US and Britain, both which claim to believe in democracy, says it all
The silence of the US and Britain, both which claim to believe in democracy, says it all
Click the link below to read the full column by Peter Oborne ⤵️ middleeasteye.net
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