Like his predecessors as Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan had to step down before his term ended, his image tarnished by his political maneuvering and combative rhetoric.
Khan, 69, was deposed by a motion of censure passed in Parliament on Sunday, having managed to delay that moment for a week when he tried to dissolve the House to avoid it. But the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the lawsuit was unconstitutional.
In the final vote, the motion won a majority of 174 votes out of a total of 342 seats, and Khan was abandoned by his key allies.
Imran Khan came to power in 2018 after the legislative victory of his party, the Pakistan Justice Movement (PTI), presenting a conservative religious profile, promises of social reforms and fighting corruption.
The balance of his tenure and his penchant in recent days to accentuate fractures in Pakistani society, accusing the opposition of treason, played against him.
– Degraded security –
After two decades in politics, the tenacity of the cricketer praised by millions of Pakistanis for leading the national team to its only World Cup victory in 1992 has finally paid off.
As head of government, he initially enjoyed an incorruptible image in a society tired of traditional parties, which together with the army have monopolized national politics for decades.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, his decision not to impose a national lockdown, which would have made Pakistanis “starve to death”, proved to be right – the country had only 30,000 deaths – and allowed him to gain popularity.
But the economic situation and bad decisions eventually hit him. Strong inflation, the depreciation of the rupee since July and the increase in debt have weakened his image.
In addition, security has become a major issue after the Taliban’s conquest of neighboring Afghanistan.
The return to power of this Islamist group was seen as a victory for Pakistan, a country accused of having supported it for a long time and where the head of government was nicknamed “Taliban Khan” for not failing to promote dialogue with them.
After years of relative calm, attacks, especially by the Pakistani Taliban, resumed in August.
– Complacency with radicals –
Imran Khan also saw his relations with the army deteriorate, accused of interfering in his favor in 2018, but which has remained silent about the situation of the head of government in recent days.
And Khan’s efforts to make Pakistan a strong regional player have had little impact. Relations with Washington and European countries were strained, especially for his speeches about Islamophobia in those nations.
Islamabad has also moved even closer to China. And Khan’s official visit to Moscow, on the same day that the war in Ukraine began, made him the butt of jokes and criticism.
Khan, the son of a wealthy family in Lahore (northeast, bordering India), graduated from Oxford and was married three times, after earning a reputation as a seducer during his sporting career.
The former prime minister was accused of giving in to religious radicals. In November, his government lifted the ban that had been in place since April against the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party, due to violent demonstrations denouncing France’s support for defending the right to caricature, among others, the prophet Muhammad.
He has also been accused of restricting the freedom of expression of the press and, on several occasions, has linked the way women dress to rape, in a country where sexual violence is very present.
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