Imran Khan is battling for his political survival after Pakistani authorities launched a crackdown on his party, with the popular former prime minister acknowledging that his path back to power is narrowing.
Since he was removed in a no-confidence vote last year, Khan has waged a relentless campaign to force elections, mobilising supporters around the country and challenging Pakistan’s powerful military — which he accuses of orchestrating his ouster — in a way few others have dared.
This high-stakes campaign now appears to have backfired. In recent weeks, authorities have detained thousands of his supporters and scores of senior leaders have quit his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party under pressure. The 70-year-old former cricketer, who is out on bail after being arrested last month, is battling dozens more cases from terrorism to murder allegations.
“Right now it’s a question of survival,” he told the Financial Times in an interview from his Lahore home. “To put it in cricketing terms, when you lose early wickets, you just put your head down and stay on the crease. You don’t play any flamboyant shots rights now. All we can do is survive this unprecedented crackdown.”
“Any supporters, our entire leadership [are] in jail, the rest are all hiding,” he continued. “So I’m at the moment quite isolated, because I can’t get in touch with anyone.”
Khan blamed the country’s army, which has long controlled Pakistani politics from behind the scenes, for the campaign, calling it “undeclared martial law” and claiming that he was more popular than ever. While national elections are due by October, analysts say polls could be delayed due to the economic and political turmoil.
“They will only hold elections when they think that my party is crushed. And that’s what’s going on right now,” Khan said. “If there are elections we would win.”
To his opponents, Khan is less a principled defender of democracy than a power-hungry opportunist and populist. Pakistan’s former celebrity cricket captain rose to the premiership in 2018 thanks in part to the army’s support, only for the relationship to sour while in office.
His military-backed government was frequently accused of using its own heavy-handed tactics to stifle dissent, including arresting rival leaders on corruption allegations.
Once ousted amid accusations that he mismanaged the economy, Khan railed against not only Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif — who he blames for Pakistan’s current economic crisis — but the army, even accusing a military official of conspiring in an assassination attempt on him last year.
Sharif’s government “realise that without the backing of the military establishment they are gone”, Khan said. “In fact, they are going along with this undeclared martial law because they are scared of elections.”
The crackdown started after Khan was arrested on corruption allegations in early May, prompting a wave of sometimes violent protests and vandalism against some military installations by PTI supporters. Khan denies the allegations.
Thousands of supporters were detained and a number of prominent PTI leaders, such as former ministers Shireen Mazari and Fawad Chaudhry, quit after being repeatedly arrested.
Several former PTI leaders said their ordeals only ended after they agreed to distance themselves from Khan. “I doubt if people will forgive Shehbaz Sharif and his government,” one of them said. “It is not clear who will lead Pakistan in future. Right now, the government is unpopular and it’s hard to tell if they will succeed.”
Media executives also said they were ordered to reduce coverage of the former prime minister. “Imran Khan has disappeared from the TV screens,” said the head of one large Pakistani news organisation. “We cannot use his name or that of his party.”
The UN’s human rights commissioner and others have condemned the current crackdown. Pakistan’s army did not respond to a request for comment but has previously dismissed criticism of its actions, including plans to try alleged vandals in military courts.
“It is time that [the] noose of law is also tightened around the planners and masterminds” of what it called a “politically driven rebellion against the state”, the army said this month.
Some PTI exiles led by former general secretary Jahangir Tareen have since formed a rival party, the Istehkam-e-Pakistan party.
Bilal Gilani, executive director of pollster Gallup Pakistan, said the army may tacitly encourage rivals like these in order to weaken the PTI’s support. He added that the crackdown had damaged Khan’s standing among people loyal to the military.
“Among the chattering classes, the perception is that the PTI is finished,” Gilani said. Khan “could lose a lot of political power despite being very popular”.
Sharif’s government has dismissed Khan as a passing fad.
“Imran Khan’s rise was mainly due to his presence on social media,” said Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, a member of parliament from Sharif’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. “Once his popularity ended, lots of people along the grassroots will look for an alternative. The PTI just had a very short-term existence.”
Yet analysts have warned against writing off Khan’s prospects for a comeback. He too argued that the attempts to stifle him were “unsustainable”.
The crackdown “is completely against the culture of this country”, he said. “And so there’s a big backlash also coming . . . We just have to weather the storm. I don’t think this can last.”
