Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested on Tuesday, as the country began falling into a hot, banana republic-style mess. Khan is wildly popular with the Pakistani people but was ousted in a shady election in 2022. He plans to run for reelection, so his arrest is being viewed by the rest of the world as an obvious political ploy to interfere with his ambitions.
It’s a good thing we have the Rule of Law and a Constitution and stuff like that in America so nothing like that could ever happen here!
Khan, who plans to run for reelection in 2026, enjoys an approval rating of 61% among the Pakistani people. Shehbaz Sharif, the current prime minister who had Khan arrested, only has a 32% approval rating. By way of comparison, Donald Trump now has a 60% approval rating among Republicans in the 2024 presidential race, compared to Joe Biden’s 36% approval rating among Democrats. Not that we’re drawing comparisons or anything.
Sharif has tried to arrest Imran Khan several times already, but those attempts were foiled. Khan is so popular that his supporters have blocked Pakistani Ranger forces anytime they’ve tried to snatch the former PM. But on Tuesday, Khan was at a doctor’s appointment in Islamabad. His leg is still recovering after he was shot in an assassination attempt in 2022, which was carried out by one of Sharif’s voters.
As police were inside the hospital protecting Khan, Rangers smashed the windows and broke in wearing riot gear. The Rangers are a Pakistani government paramilitary group under the control of Sharif. Khan’s attorney was with him at the appointment, and described the mostly peaceful arrest like this:
“Imran Khan was in the process of getting his biometrics done. I was there in the room. The Rangers told us to open the doors, but the police objected – but then the Rangers’ personnel broke the windows and entered the room. Rangers tortured everyone who was present in the room.”
Khan’s attorney says the Rangers clubbed the former PM in the head and in his wounded leg before whisking him away in an armored vehicle. Three of Pakistan’s four provinces have erupted in violent protests following Khan’s arrest. So far, police have killed at least one unarmed protester and badly injured 12 others. Photos and videos of the protests show police clashing with Khan’s supporters, dragging people around by their hair, and clubbing them.
In order to further instill trust in his administration, Shehbaz Sharif has shut off the internet in Pakistan. Very few people or journalists are now able to post protest videos or police brutality online, so the rest of the world is largely in the dark as to what’s happening.
Pakistan is already reeling from record-high inflation after Sharif came into power in 2022, and economic growth has totally stagnated. The voters are clamoring to hold snap elections so that they can install Imran Khan back into office to get things under control. They know from experience that Khan’s policies brought peace and prosperity while Sharif has brought economic devastation. Can you imagine the horror of something like that?
Fortunately, we have Joe Biden in charge here in America, so we don’t have any inflation and the economy is JUST GREAT. He’ll probably send Secretary of State Tony Blinken over to Pakistan to cool things down, and to condemn Sharif’s government for arresting Khan. Because this is totally outrageous. America just can’t stand for this type of banana republic stuff. We’re better than that here.
