Imran Khan, Pakistan’s most famous cricket captain and the current Leader of the Opposition, whose elected government was toppled on military orders in 2022 has been in prison for the last three years. He was removed from office after the Pentagon expressed irritation with his remarks on Ukraine and expressed delight at the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. The country is now being run by its fifth military dictator. The façade of civilian rule is totally unconvincing as Trump, MBS and the Iranian leadership know only too well. All of Pakistan is aware that Imran is being kept in prison for one main reason: he is the most popular politician in the country. The country itself is in a total mess. Its social infrastructure is in a state of collapse, food prices have reached the sky, infant mortality rates have remained static for decades, children are being born stunted and the average height of most Pakistanis is much reduced since the 1980s. A callous, greedy, shameless political-military elite clings to power and is kept going by the IMF, China and Saudi Arabia. The Pakistan Finance minister, Muhammad Aurangzeb, informed the Financial Times ‘that the $10b swap line that Pakistan sought from Washington last month was intended to serve as a “a confidence signal” to private investors, as Islamabad’s military-backed government looks to capitalise on close ties to the Trump administration’. With China getting much tougher on the loan front, a desperate Finance Minister is pleading for some more handouts from the US.
In solitary confinement, with his health declining every week, Imran is refused all help by the civilian peons who work for the Army and belong to the country’s two most corrupt dynastic parties: the Sharif brothers from the Muslim League and the Zardari-Bhutto family’s People’s Party. There’s not much they could do, of course, since the orders for his imprisonment come from the uniformed honcho and self-appointed Field Marshal, Asim Munir. But their silence is inexcusable. Its not simply the corrupt parties, but also many liberals who have failed to demand his immediate and unconditional release. They disagree with him politically. I don’t agree with him on some issues either, but why should that matter? It reminds me of how many anti-Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto politicians from Left and Right ganged up with General Zia and let Bhutto be hanged in 1979. Later some regretted it, but it was too late and General Zia was busy creating a new US-backed jihadi ‘consensus’ that wrecked the country. A state destined to repeat its mistakes can never prosper. At least this has been recognised by the young left-wing Haqooq-e-Khalq [People’s Rights Party] that has been working, amongst other things, for Imran’s release. Its principal leader Ammar Jan is one of a group of tough-minded socialist intellectuals and his collection of essays, Rule By Fear: Eight Theses on Authoritarianism in Pakistan is an effective polemic that deserves to be read.
The decay that typifies the country has now gripped its most popular sport, cricket, as well. This is symbolised by the fact that the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Mohsin Naqvi, is also the Interior Minister of Pakistan (i.e. the Minister for Repression). He shares an obsession with his boss, the Field Marshal, to erase Imran Khan from Pakistani history completely. Documentary footage of Imran as Captain winning the Cricket World Cup in 1992 is banned on Pakistan TV. And the current collapse of the team itself in the Test series currently underway in England is a further reminder of the decline. As the team arrived in Britain, 21 cricket captains from all of the countries where the sport is played (including Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev from India and Javed Miandad from Pakistan if not Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Inzimam-ul-Haq, all three of whom were discovered, promoted and encouraged by Imran) signed an Open Letter to the Prime Minister of Pakistan demanding in ultra-polite language that Imran be permitted a proper medical assessment, family visits, and unconstrained treatment for any health issues. On Friday 28 August, as Pakistan was playing England, Sky Sports TV, gave Mike Atherton eighteen minutes during the lunch break to interview Imran’s two sons who live in London. In Pakistan itself, the Supreme Court has instructed the government to release Imran and let him get treatment for a seriously deteriorating eye at a top private hospital. The government refused, sending him instead to a stooge ophthalmologist who declared all was well and returned him to prison.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), which has long been a nest of vipers and sycophants, asked Sky not to broadcast the interviews. If they did, warned the Minster of Repression, the Pakistan team would not come out to play after lunch. The blackmail did not work. Sky ignored the demand and the team did come out to play if we can call it that. Wickets tumbled like ninepins. This whole business must have further demoralised the team. Pakistan cricket is suffering badly. The PCB are destroying cricket. The players are, in most cases, the victims of this process. Perhaps they should abandon Test cricket altogether and concentrate on its 20-20 version where loads of money can be made. Corruption is rife and betting outfits rule over the sport. Cricket is not going to get better unless the country does.
