Clashes between supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and security forces are escalating in Pakistan. These clashes began after Khan appealed to the people to come out and protect him from possible arrest or even assassination. The situation is extremely unpleasant, not only because there is already bloodshed among Muslims, but also because if this conflict escalates, there could be rivers of bloodshed. Various extremist groups such as «Tehrik-e-Taliban» (not to be confused with the Afghan Taliban), ISIS, and others may take advantage of the destabilization of the country.
Our long-time readers must remember that there was a time when we wrote about Imran Khan with great sympathy, beginning with his rise to power when he was in the opposition. Even many of his initiatives in the international arena regarding the consolidation of the Islamic world and its key countries elicited great enthusiasm.
Therefore, the events of his removal from power last year and what accompanied it could not help but cause disappointment. At the time, we wrote about this in a number of our publications, particularly in the article «Toxicity: Putin Drowned Imran Khan» (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=40591) in the spring of last year and in the article «Will Imran Khan Resurface? The Main Thing Is Not to Drown Again» (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=40874) in the same year. Therefore, let us look at what is happening now through the prism formulated then.
In particular, recently, in the midst of his appeals to his supporters, he made a series of programmatic statements in an interview with «Al-Mayadeen,» which allow us to understand why not only pro-Kremlin «Muslim bloggers» but also various unrelated individuals are now unanimously supporting him. Imran Khan has stated that his removal from power is being orchestrated by the United States because he has pursued a policy that is detrimental to them by refusing to establish American military bases in Pakistan, as the American war against the Taliban in Afghanistan has resulted in numerous casualties not only among Afghans but also among Pakistanis.
This is hard to argue with, and moreover, when we reported on Imran Khan’s rise to power, we pointed out his advantage in that he promised to stop using Pakistani territory to attack Afghanistan if he won.
But there is a serious caveat — the situation has changed fundamentally since then, including after the Americans withdrew from Afghanistan and accepted the Taliban’s control of the country and the futility of fighting them as a reality. Moreover, as we have pointed out, the Americans, before their hasty evacuation in the face of the Taliban’s rapid advance, actually prepared for this by negotiating with the Taliban on an agreed platform of contact in Qatar.
As a result, the Americans received guarantees from the Taliban on issues crucial to them, namely the non-use of Afghan territory for attacks on the US and its allies, and their preparation for such attacks, which allowed them to abandon further military resistance against the Taliban. However, the Taliban did not reach an agreement with the Americans on the issues that were crucial to them and refused to come to power through inclusion in the government of the recognized Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, insisting on ruling under the banner of their internationally unrecognized Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
In this connection, the assets of Afghanistan remained frozen and were not handed over to the new government, which caused them serious problems. However, it should be noted that despite the establishment of public contacts with the Taliban, none of the internationally recognized Muslim countries, including Pakistan under the leadership of Imran Khan, has fully recognized the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan or established full diplomatic relations with it. It is understandable why this is the case, but it is unclear why the issue of confrontation with the Americans is currently being misused in their desire to use Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, when the Americans themselves abandoned this fight several years ago to focus on more pressing priorities for themselves.
Another statement of Imran Khan from this interview is that under his leadership Pakistan refused to join the sanctions against Russia and the supply of weapons to Ukraine because «the war in Ukraine has nothing to do with Pakistan». In this regard, we would like to remind that according to Imran Khan’s statements during the discussions on the issue of Uyghur genocide in China, it also had no connection with Pakistan, which is why Imran Khan openly supported Beijing and chose it as his main ally. In this regard, we have already written several times about the sad reality of the modern Islamic Ummah, which consists of different parts that are divided and none of them can act independently, being forced to make alliances with non-Muslim forces, be it the United States or China, ignoring the interests and problems of other parts of the Ummah.
In this situation, we will say frankly: if our problems do not matter to Imran Khan, why should we wish him success in his struggle if the result will strengthen our enemies — Russia and China? At the same time, unlike Imran Khan, we do not say that what happens in Pakistan has nothing to do with us. But Imran Khan and Pakistan are not the same. Imran Khan and his supporters are one of the many groups fighting for power in Pakistan, of which there are many, and Pakistan is a Muslim country of about two hundred million people with nuclear weapons. As Muslims, what is important to us is that its Islamic foundations, unity and stability be preserved, not who specifically comes to power there or not. But if we are talking about the preferences of certain Pakistani forces, of course our interest is in having those in power who supply weapons to those fighting against the Russian Empire and are ready to join sanctions against it, rather than the opposite.
As they say, nothing personal. Imran Khan may be sympathetic to us, but if he does not care about our or the Uyghur problems, we will want Pakistan to have the power that is more beneficial to us, along with general stability and unity.