The “new Pakistan” has lived. Less than four years after promising his fellow citizens to rid the Islamic Republic (230 million inhabitants) of corruption, Imran Khan, 69, was ousted from power by a motion of censure in Parliament on April 9. The former cricketer, revered for carrying the national team to World Cup victory in 1992, a regular in gossip magazines for having married three times – to a daughter of billionaire Jimmy Goldsmith, then to a star journalist of television and a rigorous Muslim woman wearing the niqab -, used all the subterfuges to keep the reins of the country.
Knowing he was in a minority in the Chamber of Deputies, he denounced “a plot of America” and announced his dissolution. In vain: the Supreme Court prevented it. “Imran Khan was unable to cooperate with other parties, as required by the parliamentary system. He lost the confidence of the army because of his very poor economic results and because he did not know how to be sufficiently accommodating with General Bajwa, the chief of staff,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, professor of political science at the University of Lahore. Khan thus refused to automatically ratify the appointments in the military hierarchy, while the latter had supported his installation at the head of the country in July 2018.
That year, the two dynastic formations which had dominated political life for thirty years, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML, centre-right) of the Sharif clan and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP, centre-left) of the Bhutto clan , had been swept away. A new world was to result with the Pakistan Justice Movement (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, PTI), close to Pakistani nationalism, which, once in charge, advocated confrontation with India in Kashmir and a rapprochement with the Taliban in Afghanistan, against the advice of the army.
The parenthesis has closed. On April 11, Shehbaz Sharif, 70, was appointed Prime Minister with the help of the heirs of Benazir Bhutto (assassinated in 2007). He is the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, who was prime minister three times, forced to resign in 2017 for tax evasion and money laundering. After being released from prison for medical reasons, Nawaz Sharif went into exile in the British capital. As soon as he took office, Shehbaz Sharif restored his brother’s diplomatic passport, so that he would not be worried when he returned to the country.
A fragile economy
By taking the oath in a pale gray suit, with peroxidized hair, Shehbaz Sharif prided himself on representing “the forces of good” against “the demon” Imran Khan. That same day, however, he too should have been charged with corruption in one of the many cases for which he is being prosecuted, with the consent of the Khan government. Last year, he made yet another stay in prison and was only released after posting bail.
The new leader will have the difficult task of restoring an economy largely weakened by an unprecedented level of debt and deficit, as well as by foreign exchange reserves and foreign investments in sharp decline. With the next elections scheduled for July 2023, pro-Imran Khan protests have erupted in several cities across the country. “He is trying to rouse his traditional supporters, urban youth, the middle class, civil servants and some soldiers, by extolling radical Islam and anti-Americanism, while trying to erase his image as a narcissistic and arrogant man. “, observes Rana Banerji, a former senior Indian official specializing in Pakistan.
The former leader also suffered from his friendships with Russia. On February 24, he was in the Kremlin when Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine. “Pakistan has been fighting for more than ten years to open up to Russia, but the timing of this visit was very badly chosen. Imran Khan also paid for his failures in foreign policy,” said Mohammad Waseem, of the University of Lahore. But the ex-captain of the cricket selection knows that, in this sport as in politics, the game can be very long.