Miffed by the scathing article attributed to Imran Khan, the caretaker government in Pakistan has said it will approach the British media outlet over the piece that it says reflects poorly on the publication’s editorial judgment and credibility. In an article published in The Economist on Thursday, the embattled former prime minister raised serious doubts over the February 8 polls in Pakistan that are slated to be held.
In the write-up from jail, the former PTI chief made a case for his “engineered” removal from power in 2022 by the establishment “under pressure from America” and the lack of a “level playing field” in the elections. Khan reiterated his allegations about how a regime change brought about after US government pressure led to a vote of no-confidence against him and described the May 9 riots as a “false-flag operation” which was “pre-planned”.
“I face almost 200 legal cases and have been denied a normal trial in an open court. A false-flag operation on May 9th 2023—involving, among other things, arson at military installations falsely blamed on PTI—led to several thousand arrests, abductions and criminal charges within 48 hours. The speed showed it was pre-planned,” he purportedly wrote in the article titled ‘Imran Khan warns that Pakistan elections could be a farce’.
The write-up has already been denied both by the Pakistan government and the US Department of State. This comes as the 71-year-old is incarcerated at the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, convicted in the Toshakhana corruption case and being tried under multiple other cases. On Friday, Information Minister Murtaza Solangi said the government will be writing to the editor of the British publication The Economist in connection with an essay attributed to incarcerated Khan, the Dawn newspaper reported.
“We are writing to the editor of The Economist about an article purportedly written by Imran Khan,” Solangi said. It is puzzling and disconcerting that such an esteemed media outlet published an article in the name of an individual who is in jail and has been convicted, he said. “We believe it is critically essential to uphold ethical standards and promote responsible journalism,” the paper quoted Solangi, a former journalist, as saying. “We would like to know how the editorial decision was made, and what considerations were taken into account regarding the legitimacy and credibility of the content by The Economist,” he said.
“We would also be interested to know if The Economist has ever published such ghost articles by jailed politicians ever from any other part of the world. If jailed convicts were free to write to the media, they would always use the opportunity to air their one-sided grievances,” the minister said.
While Khan’s party officials were hesitant to comment on how the writing may have been relayed to the publication from inside prison, they had insisted that the words were indeed those of Khan. However, some observers had expressed doubts over whether the article was indeed written by Khan but many noted that the tone and content of the article was consistent with his views.
Expressing fears that the election scheduled for February 8 may not take place at all, Khan said that even if they do, such polls would be a “disaster and a farce since PTI is being denied its basic right to campaign”. “Whether elections happen or not, the manner in which I and my party have been targeted… has made one thing clear: the establishment — the army, security agencies and the civil bureaucracy — is not prepared to provide any playing field at all, let alone a level one, for PTI,” he said.
Khan also slammed the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led government’s performance, saying it “destroyed the economy, bringing about unprecedented inflation and a currency devaluation within 18 months”. He hit out at the courts, who in his words “seem to be losing credibility daily”, referring to the easy exoneration of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party chief and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Khan argued that he believes that Nawaz “has struck a deal with the establishment whereby it will support his acquittal and throw its weight behind him in the upcoming elections”. “It is my belief that Mr Sharif has struck a deal with the establishment whereby it will support his acquittal and throw its weight behind him in the upcoming elections. But so far the public has been unrelenting in its support for PTI and its rejection of the selected,” he wrote.
(With agency inputs)
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