Imran Khan, Pakistan’s most popular politician, must be free to contest timely elections
That is how democracy is supposed to work. Bad governments get summarily ejected. Fear of a reckoning encourages politicians to do better. One government’s failures are a lesson to its successors. Yet, tragically, has experienced little if any of that. Its arrogant generals, the real power in the country of 240m, have not permitted a prime minister to complete a five-year term.
Were Mr Khan’s party allowed to contest the scheduled election, he would now probably be swept back to power in Islamabad. So the army intervened again. It had him charged with multiple crimes, from blasphemy to terrorism, and placed underactivists have been arrested and most of the party’s senior leaders leant on to renounce Mr Khan. Whether the generals will even let the election go ahead is unclear.
Pakistan’s woeful governance is a direct consequence of such military meddling. The country’s political parties, as theis now demonstrating, are shifting bands of opportunists, their members united by little more than an appetite to capitalise on whatever brief opportunity to get rich the generals afford them. Its governments, formed at the army’s behest and in the knowledge that they are unlikely to last a full term, have little incentive to take tough political decisions.
The cost of the dysfunction is incalculable. Dominated by the agriculturally rich state of Punjab, Pakistan was for a long time a match for its much bigger Indian rival. Its army arguably lost four wars against India, but narrowly. Its cricketers were better than their neighbour’s. In 1990 the two countries’ average income per head was almost the same. Now Indians are, on average, 50% richer than Pakistanis.
This mess has only one solution. The generals must, once and for all, get out of politics. Pakistan otherwise has no chance of getting the better governments it needs and deserves. The time for this is now. The election should be held to schedule and Mr Khan and his party—unimpressive though they are—be free to contest it. It is for Pakistani voters to choose who should govern them. They could scarcely choose worse than their turkey-cocking generals.
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Bournemouth beach deaths: Funeral held for girl pulled from seaThe 12-year-old, named locally as Sunnah Khan, died after an incident on Bournemouth beach.
Read more »
Tragic Bournemouth pair drowned in suspected riptide, inquest revealsBREAKING: An inquest has heard that two teenagers who died off Bournemouth beach drowned in a suspected riptide
Read more »
'Angel' girl, 12, who died after incident off Bournemouth beach named as hundreds pay respects at funeralThe death of a 12-year-old girl who passed away after getting into trouble in the sea off Bournemouth beach has been named as Sunnah Khan.
Read more »
Bournemouth beach deaths: Police say they are keeping 'open mind'Police keeping 'open mind' about circumstances that led to deaths of girl and boy at Bournemouth beach
Read more »
Boy and girl who died off the coast of Bournemouth beach drowned, inquest hearsThe inquests into the deaths of Joe Abbess, 17, from Southampton, and Sunnah Khan, 12, from Buckinghamshire, were opened on Monday
Read more »