Desperate Imran Khan seeks foreign intervention, rolls out anti-corruption, rights campaign in US

Pakistan’s embattled Prime Minister Imran Khan has ignited a massive campaign hashtagged “Pakistan under siege” in the US against his country’s human rights violations on an industrial scale.

He is exhorting Americans to intervene to save “democratic values and protect the constitution in Pakistan”—a move that echoes what India’s opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has been trying to do in the UK.

Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) plans to unveil steadily 1,000 billboards across the US that carry messages such as “Custodial torture – disgrace to humanity”, “Forced disappearances of political workers” and “Death of democracy”.

Other slogans hitting out at the state of affairs under the coalition government run by Pakistan’s powerful political dynasties–the Sharifs and the Bhuttos–include “Curbing the media” and “Gagging the people”. While Shehbaz Sharif is the prime minister, Bilawal Bhutto is the foreign minister in a coalition that was cobbled up after Khan’s ouster a year back.

It has transpired that Khan’s party, PTI has hired lobbying firms in the US. The plan behind hiring the firms is two-fold–make Americans aware that Khan’s life is under threat and to also build bridges that he had burnt with the US while serving as the prime minister.

Hired for six months, the Washington-based firm, Praia Consultants LLC will advise PTI about relationship with the US government and institutions and also organise meetings with US decision-makers.

This take-to-the streets campaign is a follow-up by Khan’s trusted party members – former ministers Fawad Chaudhry and Shireen Mazari – who said last week that they have prepared a dossier on “massive human rights violations” by the Sharif government which will be shared with the diplomatic community and international organisations.

In their demands, the duo had warned the Sharif government to hold early elections and not to harass Imran Khan. They had warned that they will release a corruption and human rights dossier on the Sharif government’s violations in the English language which will be presented before foreigners. By launching billboard advertisements in the US, they have followed up on their threat.

Plans are afoot to roll out a similar campaign in the UK also.

Enthused by the campaign in the US, British doctors and other professionals of Pakistani origin have voiced strong support for starting a similar campaign in the UK. Some of the doctors are working in the British National Health Service and have shared their resentment against the Sharif government’s crackdown on Imran Khan and his party workers.

Analysts say that campaign is straight out of the playbook of globalists such as George Soros who have leveraged democracy and human rights as the templates to drum up support for “regime change,” especially by mobilising the youth.

Pakistan provides fertile ground for Soros and co to execute their so-called “pro-democracy” project. The South Asian nation is notorious for inflicting the most degrading abuses on its own people, particularly religious minorities and ethnic people. It is also globally known for its corrupt military generals and politicians.

Some of the most distressing human rights abuses include strafing of Baloch masses by helicopter gunships, abduction and forcible conversions of minority Hindu girls in Sindh, the labelling of Ahmadis as non-Muslims, the killings and burnings of religious minorities under the false charges of blasphemy and forcible abduction of Baloch, Sindhis and Shia people.

A few billboards have already come up in shopping centres in the UK–another country that hosts a large Pakistani diaspora. But these seem to have been put up by Baloch nationalist groups.

This is, however, not the first time that Pakistanis of various denominations have put up messages critical of their country.

In the US, the Baloch American Congress (BAC) and other Baloch groups have been lobbying with the members of the US Congress to highlight Pakistani military atrocities – killings, abductions and torture in their community. The Baloch diaspora in the US had during the 2018 New Year celebrations put up billboards at the iconic Times Square to highlight the repression by Pakistan.

Pakistanis have exported their religious malpractices like blasphemy laws, desecration of their religious symbols and religious hate to countries with a large Pakistani Muslim population. They have also taken their political infighting to the UK as was seen in the protests outside Imran Khan’s former wife Gemima Goldsmith as well as outside Nawaz Sharif’s mansion.

There is a steady stream of videos where Pakistanis have been videographed heckling their leaders in departmental stores in London, booing them at international airports and manhandling them during religious visits to Saudi Arabia.

Also read: How political vendetta, murderous radicals and hotheads are turning Pakistan into a failed state