It is a decision that “risk of aggravating political tensions” in Pakistan, takes over CNN : the country’s electoral commission announced on Friday (October 21st) that it was banning former Prime Minister Imran Khan from holding any office “for five years”.
The penalty for “acts of corruption” follows revelations of diplomatic gifts the politician allegedly received from Saudi Arabia and Dubai and resold “while he was in office”explains the media of the American news channel.
His party, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) (Pakistan Justice Movement), immediately challenged the decision and called on his supporters to protest. Troops have been deployed in the capital Islamabad to deal with what the PTI chief has already named “beginning of a revolution”.
Major economic and climate crisis
The country is in the grip of a major crisis, recalls the Wall Street Journal, “its foreign exchange reserves are dangerously low and monumental floods have left millions homeless”.
Imran Kahn was elected in 2018 but “ousted before the end of his five-year term by a vote of no confidence in Parliament in April”, recalls the economic daily. The former Prime Minister “claims that his dismissal was orchestrated by the all-powerful military, after he got angry with the army chief”. On Sunday, the PTI won the partial legislative elections.