Why Imran Khan’s Azadi March in Islamabad shows his political career may not be over yet

File image of former Pakistan PM Imran Khan. ANI

Imran Khan isn’t one to go quietly.

That’s the takeaway after the former Pakistan prime minister signalled an end to his protest march after his supporters clashed with police outside Parliament in Islamabad.

Already, the Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf chairman , has demanded that the government dissolve the Assemblies and order new polls – or face fresh protests.

While many were quick to write the epitaph of Imran’s political career after his ouster, this is hardly his first rodeo.

From protests to popularity with youth and conspiracy claims, let’s examine what Imran has up his sleeve:

Protests, then and now

As Marvi Sirmed writes in The Times of India, “Ever since he was shunted out of power, the former prime minister has been on a mission to polarise society and widen the internal rifts plaguing the country.”

Which is right out of his playbook.

Remember, it was the 2014 Azadi march that turned Imran from a household name to a political powerhouse and which ultimately paved his way to ascend to the highest office in Pakistan in 2018.

Launched on Pakistan’s 67^th Independence Day, activists and supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehrik held rallies to demand a probe into allegations of rigging in the 2013 general elections.

As Indian Express notes, the movement lasted a record 126 days and received non-stop media coverage. And the protest was not restricted to PTI party workers either: women, students, and the Pakistani masses are said to have participated (more than a million people are said to have taken part in the Azadi March).

That movement, which seemingly had no end in sight, was called off in December 2014 only after a terror attack in Peshawar left 141 people including 132 children dead.

As Umair Jamal writes in The Diplomat, “Within a month of his ouster, Khan has revived his support base to such an extent that it is now widely believed that if free and fair elections are conducted, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will emerge triumphant.

“One of the key reasons that Khan’s political career may not have ended yet is because of overwhelming support for his party within the state institutions. He has shown that if you have support within the state institutions and can make the leadership of these institutions appear controversial, your chances of a return to power could gain impetus.”

Popularity with youth

While Imran was brought down by Opposition parties in part by his failure to rectify the country’s dire economic situation, including its crippling debt, shrinking foreign currency reserves and soaring inflation, his popularity with the youth remains unshaken.

As Ashali Varma noted in her piece for The Times of India: “As I write this Imran Khan is perhaps the most popular political leader in Pakistan not because he has delivered much in the three plus years he has been in power but because the political parties and the establishment are on the back foot.”

“Imran has been able to get the youth and I dare say many others behind him, because, as he says, he was not allowed to complete his term as PM.”

“Since he was dethroned, he has managed to get huge crowds at every rally that is organised by his party from Peshawar, Karachi to Lahore. His message is to them does not vary much. It is about how Pakistan was made by Jinnah, as an Islamic state and in every speech of his he emphasises on the idea of Pakistan- Pakistan ka matlab kya, La Illaha Illal Allah. It translates to the meaning of Pakistan is that there is no God but Allah.”

Conspiracy claims aplenty

Since being removed from power through a no-confidence vote last month, cricket star-turned-politician has touted a claim that he was ousted from office in a “foreign conspiracy”.

As Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza, an author and a human rights activist from Mirpur in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, wrote for IANS: “In a recently released video of the former Prime Minister, he said that the West never accepted him because he was a Pakistani. He continued to explain that if one paints white strips over a donkey it will not become a zebra.”

“This statement reminds one of the great French-Algerian psychiatrist Francis Fanon, who while posted in Algeria with the French legion during the 1960s war of Algerian independence, had a chance to observe the dialectical relation between the mode of struggle of the colonial subject and the oppressor. He noted that initially the oppressed try to assimilate into the culture and society of the oppressor but then as the oppressed realises that he/she is not treated as an equal, the oppressed regresses and finally end up in confronting the colonial master in a bloody combat.”

One thing is for clear. Whatever happens in Pakistani politics, the Imran story is far from over.

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