Whatever else one thinks of Khan and his political party, in 2012 local supporters of the Tehreek-e-Insaf sent a large contingent to the march and demonstration against the NATO summit in Chicago in 2012. As there was a contrived “terrorist” panic at the time designed to put a damper on anti-NATO activities, it took a lot of courage for them to do what they did. I met with them and they were informed and dedicated, evincing concern for all victims of NATO aggression. (The war against Libya had just ended a few months before. In addition to U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, NATO forces had launched helicopter gunship and other attacks in the nation.)

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Press TV
April 10, 2022

Pakistan erupts in protest as Khan’s party threatens to resign en masse

The political crisis deepens in Pakistan as members of Imran Khan’s party threaten to resign en masse a day after he was ousted as prime minister following a vote of no-confidence in parliament.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), founded by Khan in 1996, nominated former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi as a prime ministerial candidate on Sunday, saying its members would resign en masse should he lose.

“The PTI has decided to resign from the assemblies, (and) this process will start from the National Assembly after the election of the prime minister tomorrow,” party spokesman Fawad Chaudhry tweeted in Urdu.

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Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, led the bid to topple Khan. He is widely expected to be named the country’s new prime minister on Monday.

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If voted in by parliament, Shehbaz – a long-time rival of Khan – would lead the country until October 2023, when the next election is due to be held. His first tasks will include mending fences with the powerful military and the United States….

Khan, who had antagonized the White House throughout his tenure, has accused Washington of orchestrating his ouster. On Sunday, he repeated the allegations that a “foreign conspiracy” was behind efforts to remove him from power.

Since coming to power in 2018, Khan has adopted anti-American rhetoric, while expressing a desire to align Pakistan more closely with China and more recently with Russia. He held talks with President Vladimir Putin on February 24, the day the Russian leader ordered troops into Ukraine.

“The freedom struggle begins again today against a foreign conspiracy of regime change. It is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty & democracy,” Khan said via his official Twitter account, which is followed by more than 15 million and still describes him as prime minister of Pakistan.

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Chaudhry, PTI’s spokesperson, had also called on the people to take to the streets in protest against what he described as a “betrayal of the country’s politics and Constitution.”

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Khan took to Twitter to praise the spontaneous protests against what he called the “imported govt. led by crooks.”

“Never have such crowds come out so spontaneously and in such numbers in our history, rejecting the imported govt led by crooks,” the ousted premier said.