Given the large population in the UK of Pakistani origin, the lack of serious media coverage of the overthrow and incarceration of Imran Khan, and the mass imprisonment of his supporters, is truly extraordinary.
Imran Khan was last week sentenced to three years in prison – and a five year ban from politics – for alleged embezzlement of official gifts. This follows his removal as Prime Minister in a CIA engineered coup, and a vicious campaign of violence and imprisonment against Khan and his supporters.
It is currently illegal in Pakistan to publish or broadcast about Khan or the thousands of new political prisoners incarcerated in appalling conditions. There have been no protests from the UK or US governments.
Imran Khan is almost certainly the least corrupt senior politician in Pakistan’s history – I admit that is not a high bar. Pakistan’s politics are, to an extent not sufficiently understood in the west, literally feudal. Two dynasties, the Sharifs and the Bhuttos, have alternated in power, in a sometimes deadly rivalry, punctuated by periods of more open military rule.
There is no genuine ideological or policy gap between the Sharifs and Bhuttos, though the latter have more intellectual pretension. It is purely about control of state resource. The arbiter of power has in reality been the military, not the electorate. They have now put the Sharifs back in power.
Imran Khan’s incredible breakthrough in the 2018 National Assembly elections shattered normal political life in Pakistan. Winning a plurality of the popular vote and the most seats, Khan’s PTI party had risen from under 1% of the vote in 2002 to 32% in 2018.
The dates are important. It was not Khan’s cricketing heroics which made him politically popular. In 2002, when his cricket genius was much fresher in the mind than it is now, he was viewed as a joke candidate.
In fact it was Khan’s outspoken opposition to the United States using Pakistan as a base, and particularly his demand to stop the hundreds of dreadful US drone strikes within Pakistan, that caused the surge in his support.
The Pakistani military went along with him. The reason is not hard to find. Given the level of hatred the USA had engendered through its drone killings, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the hideous torture excesses of the “War on terror”, it was temporarily not in the interests of the Pakistan military to foreground their deep relationship with the CIA and US military.
The Pakistan security service, ISI, had betrayed Osama Bin Laden to the USA, which hardly improved the popularity of the military and security services. Imran Khan was seen by them as a useful safety valve. It was believed he could channel the insurgent anti-Americanism and Islamic enthusiasm which was sweeping Pakistan, into a government acceptable to the West.
In power, Imran proved much more radical than the CIA, the British Tories and the Pakistani military had hoped. The belief that he was only a playboy dilettante at heart was soon shattered. A stream of Imran’s decisions upset the USA and threatened the income streams of the corrupt senior military.
Khan did not only talk about stopping the US drone programme, he actually stopped it.
Khan refused offers of large amounts of money, also linked in to US support for an IMF loan, for Pakistan to send ground forces to support the Saudi air campaign against Yemen. I was told this by one of Imran’s ministers when I visited in 2019, on condition of a confidentiality which need no longer apply.
Khan openly criticised military corruption and, in the action most guaranteed to precipitate a CIA coup, he supported the developing country movement to move trading away from the petrodollar. He accordingly sought to switch Pakistan’s oil suppliers from the Gulf states to Russia.
The Guardian, the chief neo-con mouthpiece in the UK, two days ago published an article about Khan so tendentious it took my breath away. How about this for a bit of dishonest reporting:
in November a gunman opened fire on his convoy at a rally, injuring his leg in what aides say was an assassination attempt.
“Aides say”: what is this implying?
Khan had himself shot in the legs as some kind of stunt? It was all a joke? He wasn’t actually shot but fell over and grazed a knee? It is truly disgraceful journalism.
It is hard to know whether the article’s astonishing assertion that Khan’s tenure as Prime Minister led to an increase in corruption in Pakistan, is a deliberate lie or extraordinary ignorance.
I am not sure whether Ms Graham-Harrison has ever been to Pakistan. I suspect the closest she has been to Pakistan is meeting Jemima Goldsmith at a party.
“Playboy”, “dilettante”, “misogynist”, the Guardian hit piece is relentless. It is an encapsulation of the “liberal” arguments for military intervention in Muslim states, for overthrowing Islamic governments and conquering Islamic countries, in order to install Western norms, in particular the tenets of Western feminism.
I think we have seen how that playbook has ended in Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, amongst others. The use of the word “claim” to engender distrust of Khan in the Guardian article is studied. He “claimed” that his years living in the UK had inspired him to wish to create a welfare state in Pakistan.
Why is that a dubious comment from a man who spent the majority of his personal fortune on setting up and running a free cancer hospital in Pakistan?
Khan’s efforts to remove or sideline the most corrupt Generals, and those most openly in the pay of the CIA, are described by the Guardian as “he tried to take control of senior military appointments and began railing against the armed forces’ influence in politics.” How entirely unreasonable of him!
Literally thousands of members of Khan’s political party are currently in jail for the crime of having joined a new political party. The condemnation by the Western establishment has been non-existent.
It is difficult to think of a country, besides Pakistan, where thousands of largely middle class people could suddenly become political prisoners, while drawing almost no condemnation. It is of course because the UK supports the coup against Khan.
But I feel confident it also reflects in part the racism and contempt shown by the British political class towards the Pakistani immigrant community, which contrasts starkly with British ministerial enthusiasm for Modi’s India.
We should not forget New Labour have also never been a friend to democracy in Pakistan, and the Blair government was extremely comfortable with Pakistan’s last open military dictatorship under General Musharraf.
On my last visit to Pakistan I went to Karachi, Abbottabad and the Afghan border. I hope to return in the spring, should the new government let me in.
May I make the plea that all of this activity (and my coming Assange tour in the US next month) is funded entirely by your subscriptions and donations. Please do consider helping if you can, as the finances of the blog are very tight at the moment, as the cost of living crisis bites people. All the contributions, even the smallest, add up to a major cumulative difference to keep us going.
————————
This post is free for anybody to reproduce or republish, including in translation. You are still very welcome to read without subscribing.
Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with the every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.
Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.
Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:
Paypal address for one-off donations: [email protected]
Alternatively by bank transfer or standing order:
Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address Natwest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a
Subscriptions are still preferred to donations as I can’t run the blog without some certainty of future income, but I understand why some people prefer not to commit to that.
A superb piece – again. Thanks.
The Guardian piece in fairness, isn’t as bad as most passive voice reporting about Palestine where “violence occurs” and civilians die. Although that is an abysmaly low bar.
One supposes a fringe benefit is that this type of endless calculated mendacity, beyond even the threshold of hypocrisy, helps delegitimize the MSM and ruin whatever undeserved standing they still have.
After all, how many people deep down trust what they see in the establishment press these days? I suspect far fewer than at the turn of the new millennium.
What a nice surprise in choice of topic.
In Germany attention is entirely on India.
About Pakistan hardly anyone knows anything.
Thus any knowledgeable account deeply appreciated.
And here Tariq Ali´s account back from May (one of the scarcely available sources on this subject for the likes of me, since Ali due to his work as novelist has a “fan base” in Germany):
“Khan Against the Generals”
https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/khan-against-the-generals
“For the reader a quick quiz: which army general or political leader sent his progeny to a madressah or an Urdu-medium school: Ayub Khan? Yahya? Bhutto? Zia? Benazir? Nawaz? Musharraf? Zardari? Imran Khan? Shehbaz? Answer: none.”
“If extreme privilege and extreme deprivation are to safely coexist, for the poor to think clearly and critically could be fatal. What Marx called opium for the masses is needed as much today as 200 years ago.”
https://www.dawn.com/news/1768503/dumbed-down-deliberately
I live in a Pakistani community but we never discuss Pakistan politics. Corruption definitely does increase when it’s under attack. All the while the corruption system is working smoothly, but obviously painfully for those who have to pay the bribes, political life is calm.
The biggest corruption in Britain occurred in 2007 when Gordon Brown was only trying to run the economy by the Tory rules, but the banks didn’t like their own rules. Massive corruption is occurring now through Tory planning policy and HS2.
Somehow our British corruption, neoliberalism, is so squeaky clean that we can even support Nazi terrorism in Ukraine while despising Pakistani terrorism as fanaticism. The world no longer sees us as we like to see ourselves.
Could not agree more! I’ve suspected for a long time that corruption in the UK is worse than in Pakistan and other countries often described as “corrupt”, but our mainstream media covers it up more. I mean, where would you even want to start… Jimmy Savile maybe? Ooft, don’t get me started.
Better to start with Mountbatten. He was known about long before Savile. Both of them were life coaches to the current head of state! So it goes well beyond corruption as understood elsewhere in the world. It needs a different name but not sure what to call it.
The word you are looking for is Evil.
An extraordinary story well told. One more shameless Washington coup. Further confirmation of the essential bankruptcy of British politicians and media (aka the Our Values brigade).
Thank you, once again, for a splendid piece.
I follow on a moment-by-moment basis the situation in Palestine.
I should be very interested to know your views, if you have some, on the relationship between one Modi and one Netanyahu.
Best wishes
It’s always comical when you pretend not to know the playbook.
India cuts off the internet and jails people for anti-government speech? Yawn.
Pakistan arrests the only viable opposition politician? Bravo, chaps. Cleaning up corruption!
America arrests the only viable opposition politician? Yawn.
Russia convicts Navalny for yet more thuggish behavior? Outrage!
Scotland commits lawfare against its former PM and arrests bloggers? Yawn
Nigeria is run by a money launderer who openly brags about buying votes? Snore
Niger asserts its independence? Outrage!
And so on and so forth…
A good summary 🙂
Don’t worry about Niger – Nuland is on the job,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/08/junta-leaders-in-niger-refuse-to-let-top-us-official-meet-ousted-president
Great article. The CIA… again. The CIA whose criminality knows no bounds, yet are celebrated in popular ‘culture’ and (s)hit Hollywood films.
I didn’t know Khan “supported the developing country movement to move trading away from the petrodollar”, but that alone would be enough for the System to want him out. Look what happened to Gaddafi when he mooted the idea of an African Gold Dinar.
I’ve never seen any coverage of deadly drone strikes on civilians on UK TV. Such is the level of lies, overt and by omission, by the legacy media… it just gets worse by the day.
Pakistan, a nation of almost a a quarter of a billion people yet there’s very sparse coverage let alone condemnations by the so-called rules-based west! But when it came to Ukraine the west were active and wanted Khan’s aid.
Pakistani premier hits out at Western envoys’ joint letter on Russia, we are not your slaves
The heads of 22 diplomatic missions, including those of European Union member states, released a joint letter on March 1 urging Pakistan to support a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/pakistani-premier-hits-out-western-envoys-joint-letter-russia-2022-03-06/
It is the same hypocrisy going on 24/7, just take Africa, where the west support military action against the alleged coup rulers and back the so called ECOWAS, a pro-western/france group of non-democracies are supported 100% by the west, when they threaten to invade Niger.
At the very same time pro-western ECOWAS member Senegal crack down on their opposition leader.
I just googled to see what EU/US have said about it….. Nope: No condemnations, no sanctions no threats of military intervention.
“Senegal authorities arrest opposition frontrunner, ban his party and cut internet”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/01/senegal-authorities-arrest-opposition-frontrunner-ban-his-party-and-cut-internet
Or some months back, the pro-western Moldova banned the biggest opposition party, interestingly there are in the western msm no headlines pointing out that this the biggest opposition party. Let alone mention that it is a opposition party, mere a shady “Pro-russian”-party.
“Moldova bans pro-Russian Shor party after months of protests”
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/moldova-bans-pro-russian-shor-party-after-months-protests-2023-06-19/
And of course it is the same hypocrisy by the west when they condemn Russia for Navalny but keep silent when Trump at the very same time faces some absurd 600 years in jail sentence in a sham, political persecution ahead of the presidential election next year.
Speaking on Niger, why on earth did Niger let in the virus?
Acting US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has traveled to Niger where she met with the new military government and warned against enlisting the help of Russian defense contractor Wagner Group
https://swentr.site/africa/580985-nuland-niger-wagner-warning/
Same with Russia, that also naively invited this horrible neocon warmongering woman prior to the war:
Russia’s Foreign Ministry confirms Nuland’s visit to Moscow (in October 2021)
https://tass.com/russia/1347435
I’d imagine that the reason the Nigerien coup (nothing alleged about it) leaders agreed to talks with Vicky Nuland, Jack, was because they want the US to keep sending them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in aid payments:
https://www.state.gov/the-united-states-and-niger-a-strategic-partnership/
—————-
With reference to your last comment on a previous post (to which I haven’t replied, as you probably won’t see it): I haven’t been cherry-picking results; I chose page 10 completely at random – and, believe it or not, I don’t need to be told how to use basic functions on a well-known, popular search engine (that knows more about most people in the Western world – including most politicians – than they know about themselves). Anyway, I searched for the term ‘ukraine protests’ between November 1 to December 31 2013, on the bbc.co.uk site and counted the results that related to the EuroMaidan protests on the first 10 pages. In all, I counted 29 articles that were anything to do with Ukraine, not ‘hundreds’.
I can’t be arsed doing the same with the Telegraph site, but I’m willing to bet you £1000 at a pound to a penny that there won’t be hundreds, because most Telegraph readers won’t have cared about Ukraine at that point – not least because it was nothing to do with avoiding UK inheritance tax.
Lapsed
Equally Niger should have equal interest to cut those ties. China, Russia and more than willing to fill in the place and money and Niger of course know this, thus there are no reason for Niger to invite this woman to their country; it will only bring harm.
Thanks for your reply Jack. Maybe the coup leaders are trying to get countries into a bidding war over who gets to give their country free money (if there is such a thing). Vicky Nuland is a middle-aged American diplomat – she is not the Marquise de Merteuil.
Lapsed, I like the Merteuil thing but I don´t quite get the association…
p.s.
2x Niger
https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/rule-by-junta
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/08/02/niger-marks-4th-anti-western-coup-in-the-sahel/
German language site of Le Monde Diplomatique:
but from March
“The colonial power that does not want to leave”
Despite the failed Barkhane operation, France wants to maintain a military presence in the Sahel”
https://monde-diplomatique.de/artikel/!5918345
AG
France also refuse to remove their military from Niger now.
Paris refuses to withdraw its troops from Niger
France has pledged to uphold military deals made with Niger’s ‘legitimate authorities’
https://swentr.site/africa/580875-france-niger-military-agreements/
Thanks for your reply AG. The Marquise is a fictional character who is so unhinged by revenge – and the inability to accept the ravages of the aging process – that she is fully prepared to destroy innocent young lives, but who is forced to flee Paris when her scheming is exposed (or at least that’s what happens in the film – still not read the book). I don’t think that can be said of Vicky Nuland, although of course, your mileage may vary.
Thanks also for the links, which I found informative (I don’t follow Niger that closely, being more concerned with Mali, not least because British troops are there, or were until very recently). I’d would encourage others to read them should they wish to gain a deeper understanding of the situation in Niger.
Lapsed,
the Kagan clan would make for a great movie.
(never finished the book either. So I can´t compare. But it is worth the read what I remember from a precocious teenage time, since it offers a tale entirely written from subjective perspectives only, via letters that slowly develope the “plot”, with an adequate “delicate” language. There are several movies/series, the best known in the West are both based /inspired by the same British play by Hampton, which I found great btw, and smartly adapted de Laclos´ novel.)
Jack,
today they say, West African diplomats seem to prevail, not least because Western initiated invasion would have to be massive
in case here German language:
“For a successful arms race, Ecowas must expend great effort. Nevertheless, success would not be certain. Why West African diplomats are morally more advanced than henpecked warriors in this country.” (henpecked – what a word)
https://www.telepolis.de/features/Niger-Eine-Militaer-Intervention-wird-teuer-9238861.html
sry, enough OTs for today
“I’d imagine that the reason the Nigerien coup (nothing alleged about it) leaders agreed to talks with Vicky Nuland, Jack, was because they want the US to keep sending them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in aid payments:”
In the real world, despite Nuland threatening to cut off those aid payments, she was still unable to meet with the new PM.
In her own words “I did not have the opportunity to meet with the coup leader, General Abd al-Rahman Tianyi”
She comes across like the Kray Twins’ big sister, “Nice little country you’ve got here, shame if anything happened to it, like being bombed back to the stone age”.
The Niger coup leaders have said they don’t want the US “aid” and that the US should use the money to help Nuland lose weight.
Thanks for your reply Bayard. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough to time to track Vicky Nuland’s every move. According to Wiki, Niger’s new PM is Ali Lamine Zeine, not the General. I doubt whether the US will have to bomb Niger: I read in one the links that AG kindly provided above that it depends on Nigeria (currently led by the US-inclined, er, character Bola Tinubu) for 70% of its electricity supply. Can’t see Niamay’s beau-monde being too happy with not being able to charge their phones to get their Afrobeats fix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqW18C4plZ8
(Note: I don’t currently know any Nigerien pop stars, so you’ll have to make do with a Nigerian one. Apologies to this blog’s Nigerien readership.)
More about the Nuland in RT today:
Victoria Nuland, Washington’s ‘regime change Karen’, wants to speak to the manager in Niger
Famous for her puppeteering during the 2014 Ukraine coup, the thinking behind this choice of envoy couldn’t be clearer
https://swentr.site/africa/581045-nuland-regime-change-niger/
Of course married to infamous Robert Kagan, a braintrust-PNAC-neocon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century
Bobby Kagan? Another lovable altruist like his missus Vicky.
LA, well, yes, I replied in haste, but I suspect that THE leader of the coup is the good general, at least our Vicky seems to think so. Going back to the subject of this post, is the current government in Pakistan the result of a coup or a revolution, in your eyes?
Robert Kagan has a brother Frederick Kagan, whose wife Kimberly Ellen Kagan is the founder and the head of The Institute for the Study of War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberly_Kagan
it’s quite convenient to have an enterprise where your family members can organize “material” for study, isn’t it? Kind of a family business.
Thanks for your reply Bayard. Yes, we all make mistakes – I’ve spelt Niger’s capital wrong in my previous comment (apologies to the Nigerien readers). As regards your question, it is neither – Imran Khan was constitutionally removed from power, just as Boris Johnson would have been if he hadn’t resigned in the wake of the Chris Pincher* scandal, even though the 1922 Committee would have had to change the rules.
However, Khan and his followers are certainly being subject to de facto political persecution. I think a good analogy would be if Boris had subsequently joined Reform UK, become its leader, and the party was on 25-30% in the polls at the expense of the Tories, as well as Labour, due to adopting a policy of banning almost all economic immigration into the UK, which resulted in him being jailed for three years (i.e. long enough to keep him out of the next election) for breaking lockdown rules, and thousands of Reform UK members being on remand for incitement to racial hatred.
* Is that an example of nominative determinism? I guess it depends on whether being a sex pest is defined as a job.
“* Is that an example of nominative determinism? I guess it depends on whether being a sex pest is defined as a job.”
I wasn’t aware that nominative determinism only applied to your job. I thought it was more your general character. Many surnames derive from personal characteristics rather than occupations, e.g. Cameron and Campbell.
The real crime of Khan, along with leaders like Putin, Trump, Orban, Salmond and Corbyn and many others targeted for destruction going back many years, is acting in the interests of their people.
That is what the vile neocon psychos calling the shots in the west hate more than anything. Because they hate us. Isn’t it obvious by now? Seeing Russia slaughter hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians is a win for them, even when they lose. What defines them is their complete indifference to human suffering. They seem to enjoy it, given that is all they create, as long as it never touches them of course…
Ask yourself whose leaders are acting in the interests of their people. We have not had a leader like that in a long time. Quite the opposite. Woke traitors everywhere you look.
At least Pakistan has an Imran Khan. Right now we have fuck all in the West and especially so in Europe. Wall to wall cowards and woke traitors. The only decent people are completely marginalized and/or smeared by revolting propaganda outfits like the laughably entitled Guardian.
Aye, Guardian of what exactly? Looks and smells a lot like evil to me.
“Aye, Guardian of what exactly? ”
Of the Establishment, of course.
Thanks for informing the public where the rest of the propaganda media chimed in with the right-wing warmongers.
We are fed CIA crimes/crap on a daily basis and it’s as if reality is being denied and history being rewritten before it is happening, we are being dragged into this malstrom of lies, fake news and western excrement.
Wars are fought for resources, greenwashing corporations encouraged to destroy our children’s future, millions of people thrown into poverty for our ghastly political agendas and those who dare to speak up or threaten the neocons actions, NATO, or dare to argue for an end to this ongoing colonial wretchedness and racism, they are being hounded/ incarcerated and media-whipped until the time when their actions will provoke counteractions.
say NOto NATO, NO to WAR, and YES to peace and a new global understanding of people who need help, a place to live, food and a more sustainable future.
Most Pakistani PMs who were prosecuted for x or y were given house arrest; not Imran Khan, he has to go to jail and face the merciless goons that are dancing to CIA tunes/handouts.
Thanks – certainly a theme that needs publicity.
In a world that is turning sharply away from the US, this and the victory over Europe that blowing up NS2 represents, are rare US wins.
More evidence, if needed, of the direct links between the CIA, MI6, The Guardian, BBC, etc. – the puppet masters.
“Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, ..” Let’s add the UK to that list with Corbyn’s defeat by the Generals and the corrupt state.
Keep shining the light into those dark corners.
Didn’t ‘Scottish’ Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s father Mohammad Sarwar (from whom – as tradition dictates – he inherited his Westminster seat), go off to work for Sharif in Pakistan after he had served his Glasgow constituents with such distinction?
I believe Sarwar Senior stepped down as Governor of the Punjab last year. As is well known, his son harbours ambitions to be Governor General of Scotland.
Who knows where that might lead?
Thanks for putting some perspective on the situation in Pakistan. The surprising thing is that the Grauniad passes an opinion piece off as news, when it is nothing of the sort. Muck rack provides an index of all of this reporters articles and many seem to be just opinion passing as news, see: https://muckrack.com/emma-graham-harrison.
If I need foreign news I look at Al-Jazeera and channels like TRT World, or RT; providing you allow for local bias and blatant propaganda, you will see extra news the BBC has not bothered with. You get the sense of a broader world picture and can make up your own mind about what looks credible and what’s not.
Another outstanding piece of journalism which puts your peers in the legacy “dead tree” media to shame. Not that that’s very difficult to do.
This article reminded me of the old joke, well, not so much a joke as a truism I suppose:
Q: Why has there never been a coup d’état in the USA?
A: Because there’s no American embassy in Washington.
Agree, it has become so difficult to get properly informed. I was not well aware of the context and events in Pakistan and I am very grateful for that piece of information.
On the topic of how neo-liberal forces are spreading (dis-)information, Glenn Greenwald recently did a good piece about Wikipedia, now pretty much an official neo-liberal channel with a huge Google influence (and funding). This is illustrated with some good examples. I haven’t checked their page on Imran Khan (or Craig Murray, or Assange), must be interesting! Greenwald also discusses with Larry Sanger, one of the co-founders of Wikipedia, who describes the big changes in the 2008-2015 period, mostly, and the loss of neutrality on the platform.
Hard to keep some critical thinking these days. Thank you Mr Murray for helping us!
Thank you, Craig.
I have always been a fan of Imran Khan, admittedly ever since I was able to watch test cricket on the BBC.
But as you say, MSM coverage of Pakistan politics has been superficial and slight so I am very grateful you have turned your attention to it here. I didn’t understand the basis of Khan’s fallout with the USA very well before.
I agree the Guardian piece is horrendous, a concoction of rumour, innuendo and superficiality.
Excellent article. Khan does not have sufficient or perhaps any military support ATM. Any gov in Pakistan needs military cover to govern as I understand it. Banning Khan ends his threat to the rules-based international order.
Given British self-reverence and celebrity obsession you’d assume there would be disquiet, even outrage, at the couping of this Oxford-educated sporting icon, a long-time tabloid darling, especially when married to a high-profile English rose. He was one of their own. Clearly Imran tainted himself irredeemably in British eyes by caring about the Pakistani poor and not following instructions from old Biden as any respectable leader should. He shamed himself, so Britain no longer wants to be associated with him.
Sounds exactly like Syria and Assad. Regime change Playbook 101.
I heard Antony Blinken on BBC news taking about the Wagner Group in NIger, how wherever they go death and instability go up. Whilst this may be true I also thought about, to name a few – Iran (Mosaddegh), Chile (Allende), … Vietnam, … more recently Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, where the US brought peace and prosperity.
I gave up on the Guardian first in about 1965 because articles on India always had a superiority attitude – like the country has not progressed for 2000 years. Then I started reading (and subscribing to) the online edition sometime in the 2000s. I became aghast at the way Jeremy Corbyn was reported. When Polly Toynbee wrote an article decrying the awful PM Boris Johnson, I commented how she and the Guardian had trashed the better alternative. I didn’t say it in any abusive way but that comment was removed as not meeting their editorial guidelines. That was another endpoint for me, especially as I now know the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funds the Guardian and he who pays the piper calls the tune.
“Given the large population in the UK of Pakistani origin, the lack of serious media coverage of the overthrow and incarceration of Imran Khan, and the mass imprisonment of his supporters, is truly extraordinary.”
Is it … is it really? I don’t think so. It is beyond predictable. It is entirely to be expected, indeed I would be surprised if the British/Western media printed or broadcasted anything other than lies and distortion about what is happening to Imran Khan.
It is a near certainty that Khan has been detained and convicted on demand of the US imperium. And just as the Pakistani authorities have acted at the behest of the US so too now, especially since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, the British/Western media are completely placed at the disposal of the demands of US power, as we have seen with the unprecedented blanket propaganda and lies we are being fed about the Ukraine war.
This is the new normal, with currently no end in sight.
Brilliant article Craig, clear and concise as to why Khan was removed.
I have always been of the opinion that the moment Imran Khan understood he could be a politician was his appearance, way back in 1994, on “The Devils Advocate” with the great Darkus Howe. Imran Khan was tasked with defending the Pakistan Cricket Team against the charge of cheating by the British ‘Media of Hate’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZYwQKbBvwI
You can see Imran thinking. And then there is Geoffrey Boycott giving the straight fact of the matter. Darkus does not contradict. Wonderful!
“… in order to install Western norms, in particular the tenets of Western feminism”: Dear Craig, this does not add any value to an otherwise fine article and is, by the way, not correct: CIA & Co. do not give a damn about human rights including women’s rights.
Anne.
What makes you think that Western feminism has anything to do with women’s rights or indeed women ?
Anne,
Your last point is one with which I entirely agree. And I think Mr Murray does not contradict it in his article.
Dear Anne,
I’m sure Craig Murray intended that statement to be sarcastic. As Stevie Boy implies, “Western feminism” and feminism as most women, especially women in those non-Western nations that were once European colonies, understand it are two very different concepts, perhaps even at odds with each other.
Jen, may you please explain the difference? It is something that I guess but am unable to put in words.
How about, feminism is about empowering women, “Western feminism” is about attacking men?
Bayard, probably something like this.
I’ve come across the expression “toxic masculinity”. I can imagine women not being able to handle machismo in men, so they label it toxic when it’s not as toxic as it is inappropriate in many situations. I would be sorry if masculinity disappeared. I believe that it’s necessary to find the right suitable forms of expression for it. After all, it’s a natural phenomenon.
Although, you know, my idea is unlikely to find popularity today. It’s such a weird agenda these days that even Mike Tyson would probably declare himself a woman for the sake of participating in a women’s boxing match and you would have no legal means to prevent it.
Tatyana
Since it fits your current question re: feminism allow me go off topic for a moment:
a short new text from Jacobin:
“Labor Union Radicals Built the US Feminist Movement
By Katherine Turk
Forget the stereotypes about the “individualism” of 1970s feminism. In fact, labor radicals played a crucial role in founding and organizing the struggles to topple gender hierarchies — and they should serve as an inspiration for labor feminists today.”
https://jacobin.com/2023/08/labor-union-radicals-us-feminist-movement-individualism-now
Most of what is in the media today on this topic, as well as “woke” “queer” etc. are mere media phenomena.
They exist only within the media as products (like movies or vampire young adult novels) serving the profit-making goal of the PR-industry.
Products very diligently prepped for dominating public fake discourse and divert attention from the true meaning of the terms, used in derogatory ways either or in overblown praise.
Thus, to stay with the feminism example, hardly any of those public talking heads would know that womens´ rights originated in essence with the labour movement and the fight of working class in the 19th century.
Feminism in its true sense relates to the “in” feminism of the media pundits of today the same way the Chicago Civil Rights Movement related to Barack Obama.
I would also say that western feminism, in my understanding, is mysoginistic.
A current example, IMO, would be the treatment of J.K. Rowling.
Indeed Anne thank you. His womanising was quite charming and welcome. Women’s liberty to choose being a prerequisite to his success on the social scene. In the UK. And Jemima as well placed pawn for the West was a feather in his cap and the envy of many. When in Rome etc etc
delicious
Good piece. Imran Kahn is being smeared as corrupt by some of the most corrupt people on earth, as Dilma and Lula were in Brazil. The tactic naturally meets with the approval of the British elite — racists who smeared the country’s most anti-racist politician as a racist.
It is an audacious bottom of the pond strategy, deployed by the very worst people. And they will deploy it almost as a matter of course from now on. That’s because they know that when such calumnies are aimed at establishment enemies they will be enthusiastically promoted by the likes of the Guardian and BBC or their equivalents in other lands. Any dissent to the smears will of course be labeled disinformation or antisemitism. It has been working like a charm so why stop?
I should think that whenever The Guardian needs someone to write a hit-piece on an overseas politician loathed by the British political establishment, that garbage rag always reaches out for the most ignorant, know-nothing scribbler on its staff to write that piece. How else to explain the rubbishy quality of Emma Graham-Harrison’s screed on Imran Khan or Olivia Solon’s apology for the White Helmets in Syria several years ago?
Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan barred from politics for 5 years
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/8/former-pakistan-pm-imran-khan-barred-from-politics-for-5-years
Still, clear lead for his party PTI in the polls:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2023_Pakistani_general_election
A poll conducted ealier this year showed that Khan have great majority support and that pakistanis rather blame the PDM party for the mess in the country:
Coalition of Khan’s political opponents, the PDM, getting blamed for ongoing inflation and economic instability, survey says
62 percent of Pakistanis say PDM rather than Khan’s PTI party to be blamed for current meltdown, Public Pulse report says
https://www.arabnews.pk/node/2263776/pakistan
I know too little about Pakistan but could this develop into civil war etc?
Jack,
the below lengthy Washington Post text ends on a similiar note as you do.
WaPo appears more cautious in its position then I had expected, however that might just do the trick.
“Pakistan expected to dissolve Parliament days after Imran Khan arrest”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/08/imran-khan-pakistan-elections-banned/
The end of the text (I never get what correspondents on other continents are doing in such articles.):
“(…)
“If general elections are held, the PTI will sweep the polls, not only in this province but across the country,” said 21-year-old Saif Ullah, who has long been a staunch supporter of a rival party but said he sympathizes with Khan because he thinks he is innocent.
The unbroken enthusiasm for Khan among many voters in northwestern Pakistan, where his party had struggled in recent years, suggests that his arrest is deepening a divide between the Pakistani establishment and people who feel disenfranchised.
(…)
Mehboob, the political analyst, said Sharif’s government could also highlight progress on restoring ties with other countries, including the United States, over the past 15 months, after Khan frustrated U.S. officials by suggesting that they were behind a conspiracy against him.
But the government’s most consequential legacy may become its inability to address the deeper frustrations of Khan’s supporters, with many feeling increasingly disconnected from political elites, some analysts worry.
“What seems undeniable is that respect for orderly democratic processes in Pakistan has suffered a particularly severe blow over the last 15 tumultuous months,” wrote Marvin G. Weinbaum, director of the Afghanistan and Pakistan Studies Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, in an analysis.
For Pakistan, it might be a blow “from which it may not recover,” he wrote.
Nawaz Khan reported from Peshawar, Masih from Seoul and Noack from Paris.
(…)”