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Explainer | Why Pakistan’s Islamists aren’t the real problem for Imran Khan

  • An influential cleric is leading the campaign to bring down Pakistan’s leader but the Islamists are really window dressing for an intricate opposition movement
  • Should Beijing be worried about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor?

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Supporters of the Islamist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party wave flags from atop a vehicle during the anti-government Azadi (Freedom) March. Photo: AFP
Barely 15 months after assuming power, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan faces his first serious political crisis. Hitherto protected by his extraordinarily close relationship with the powerful military, Khan finds Islamabad – and his government – besieged by tens of thousands of Islamists led by Pakistan’s most influential cleric-politician Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman.

With the leaders of the country’s two largest mainstream opposition political parties, ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari, behind bars on corruption charges, Rehman has assumed leadership of a campaign against the controversial 2018 elections that brought Khan to power.

The mass sit-in in Pakistan’s capital comes at a time of widespread public disgruntlement with Khan’s government. His preoccupation with bringing corruption charges against his predecessors has coincided with the sudden onset of a crunching economic recession. An accompanying crackdown on freedom of expression has further fuelled popular resentment.
Islamic political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) leader Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman addresses crowds during an anti-government protest in Islamabad on November 3. Photo: AFP
Islamic political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) leader Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman addresses crowds during an anti-government protest in Islamabad on November 3. Photo: AFP

WHY ARE ISLAMISTS PROTESTING?

Rehman has dubbed the protest campaign the “azadi [freedom] march”. This is reflected in his four-point charter of demands: the resignation of Khan, fresh elections, non-interference by the military, and the upholding of the constitution in letter and spirit.

Rehman is giving voice to the widely held public sentiment that the 2018 general elections were brazenly rigged by the military to bring about the downfall of their civilian rivals for power.

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