There have been ructions all over the Middle East, and nowhere has Imran Khan been involved. The people of Sudan have protested hard enough for the military finally to tell President Omar Al-Bashir to step aside. He had been in office since 1989. There had been an upsurge of inflation recently, as the economy spiralled out of control after there was no more oil to prop up the economy after South Sudan, which has the oil, was carved out of the country in 2011.
He must be a great disappointment to General Musharraf, being a paratrooper. Though he was a general, there was corruption alleged. Imran Khan doubts it, because there was no invitation against him to lead a sit-in, nor did any Sudanese try to hold one. Imran suspects an international conspiracy, just as there is against him. Rampant inflation and economic collapse is no reason to remove a government.
There seems to be an international conspiracy against generals. A serving general was ousted in Sudan, and a retired Army chief was not elected PM in Israel. Instead they voted for a corrupt element, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under investigation for corruption, which we all know means guilt. That win might well be taken as a good omen by Narendra Modi, whose own re-election bid started on Thursday. Modi might depend more on the fact that he was leading in the opinion polls leading into the election, which goes on forever and a day. Well, actually, it goes on until well into May. India, it seems, is the only country which doesn’t have elections on the same day.
Imran Khan has been commenting on the elections, saying that Modi would win. He’s already got the Afghan government upset because of his saying that they should have an interim government. So now he’s added Congress to his list of enemies, which has accused him of favouring Modi. Maybe Modi isn’t corrupt, which makes him all right, even if he’s a warmongering anti-Muslim and persecutor of all beef-eaters. Netanyahu, on the other hand, is also corrupt.
Another reason Imran has for favouring the BJP is that it is also backed by a lot of military men, including retired service chiefs. The letter they wrote in support of the BJP seems to have backfired, showing how unpatriotic Indians are. As much as Israelis, who voted against a retired Army chief.
And we know how much Imran Khan is opposed to corrupt elements, who make him come out in a rash. That’s why he had both Houses postpone their sessions, because they contained elements he didn’t want to mix with. That postponement must be laid to the credit of the new Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ejaz Shah, a retired brigadier and IB chief, for whom the district of Nankana Sahib was carved out under Parvez Musharraf out of Sheikhupura district.
This is just the moment when Imran should turn his attention to foreign affairs. The economy isn’t doing all that well. That means that foreign affairs is a good place to relax. Well, not exactly, because it would not be a very good idea to take not just the country, not just the region, but the whole world, into a nuclear war. But we know that the Cuptaan is not afraid to take bold steps, so banning telecasts of the IPL makes sense. And we know that the IPL is corrupt.
Maybe Imran should do something about Brexit. They’ve extended the deadline to July 30, which should allow him an escape to the balmy weather of an English summer away from the searing heat that is creeping up upon us with the slow intensity of a glacier. Maybe a dharna would be helpful.
Another event Imran is said to be watching very carefully is the arrest at last of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on the premises of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had sought asylum since 2012. Assange had fled there to avoid Swedish extradition requests on charges of sexual assault. He feared an arrest would lead to extradition to the USA on charges of leaking secrets.
Somebody seems to have noticed the sequence of events behind his arrest. First, the IMF gave Ecuador $4.2 billion a month ago. Then a Canadian company, Gran Tierra, entered Ecuador after winning oil and gas bids. Only a week ago, the World Bank approved a $350 million loan for Ecuador. Assange was arrested four days later.
Imran is casting about for someone to hand over, in response to urgent calls from Finance Minister Asad Umar, in Washington negotiating a package with the IMF. Will the USA take someone from the Sharif family? Or will it prefer to keep Afia Siddiqui? Or maybe it’ll take Shakeel Afridi? Anyone, so long as they give us the blessed package!