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My name is Wajahat Saeed Khan. I’m an independent journalist based in New York City. I’ve been covering Pakistan for over 20 years. It’s a country I was born in. But it’s a country I can’t return to. That’s partially because I’ve been falsely accused by Pakistani authorities for aiding terrorism, sowing sedition and inciting mutiny. These accusations have been hurled at me for my reporting. But my condition doesn’t measure up to the injustice being meted out to Pakistan’s former prime minister, Imran Khan. Within the last week, Mr. Khan, who is a globally renowned athlete, philanthropist, and possibly the most popular Pakistani ever born, has been sentenced in three different cases for a total of 31 years. He’s also been fined millions of dollars. In a fictional setting, the cases Mr Khan has been sentenced for would range from the sublime to the ridiculous. But in today’s Pakistan, its all the same: he’s gotten 10 years for misplacing a classified foreign office document that’s already been leaked to the public, and which wasn’t his to secure in the first place. This is the so called "cipher case." His loyal deputy and former foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, has also been sentenced to ten years of rigorous punishment. This was the maximum sentence allowed. This sentence was given without due process, by a court which didn’t allow Mr Khan’s lawyers to represent him. Rather, they replaced his defense team with lawyers from the prosecution. The next day, Mr. Khan was sentenced along with his wife for retaining and undervaluing a jewelry set, which he received as a state gift. This sentence was 14 years, with rigorous imprisonment for both Mr. and Mrs. Khan. Notably, this sentence was also given without due process, without the recording of testimony, the production of the defense’s witnesses and even cross examination. Like the first sentence, this too carried maximum prison time for the former prime minister and first lady, who by the way, had nothing to do with the receiving or the valuation of this jewelry. Getting state gifts was her husband’s business to begin with. This case, known as the "Toshakhana case" — named after the government office that houses state gifts – was particularly strange because two former prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif and Yousuf Raza Gilani, and a former head of state, President Asif Zardari, have also been accused for retaining and undervaluing state property. Even though these men served years ago, before Khan, they have yet to be tried in the same reference. But we must focus on today. Today, Mr. and Mrs. Khan were sentenced again, this time in a case which challenged the foundation of their relationship – their marriage After two days of expedited hearings, the former prime minister and first lady were convicted of an illegal marriage. In this stranger-than-fiction petition, the petitioner was the ex-husband of Mrs Khan – a man who had previously divorced her, and also gone on the record and sworn that his ex-wife was a woman of impeccable character, and had also sung praises for Mr. Khan. Upon their marriage, this divorcee had publicly wished the happy couple lots of luck. In fact, this petitioning ex-husband maintained this position from 2017 – since he divorced the former first lady – till last November – when after being detained for over a month by authorities on corruption charges, he suddenly changed his tune and accused Imran Khan and his ex-wife of illicit relations The verdict that was given today – 7 years – is also the maximum penalty allowed to a court for this so called crime But the verdict today cuts deep. In Islamic Pakistan, illicit relations between a man and a woman are damning. They don’t just pose a legal problem. But a moral one as well. Thus, this verdict cuts into the very soul of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Today’s verdict was not just the result of the public discussion of the personal details of the former first lady … with her pregnancy records and even her menstrual cycles examined for whether she had passed the right amount of time in isolation – a requirement by islamic standards for a woman who’s divorced – before she’s remarried. Rather, today’s verdict was political overkill by Pakistan’s military backed establishment that is trying to clear the path for its favored players in the upcoming general elections. See, Pakistan’s conundrum is a simple one... It’s ruled by a military it can’t afford. To make things more 'affordable,' the military seeks foreign clients, and runs a rentier political economy. When the client says jump, the Pakistani military doesn’t just say how high... It also goes out of its way, overthrows governments, conducts coups, and even executes elected officials. To avoid sanctions and ensure the facade of democracy, the military keeps the revolving doors of parliament moving – kicking out one prime minister and bringing in another. Thus, none of Pakistan’s 23 prime ministers since independence have ever finished a term. Instead, they’ve been sacked, exiled or killed. In Mr Khan’s case, he refused to suffer all three fates When he was sacked in 2022, he refused to take things lying down, and kicked off what was in effect, not just a demand for elections, but also a staring contest against the military, once his benefactors. Instead of going into exile, or retreating from politics like so many of his predecessors, he embarked on a popular mission to return to power while unveiling Pakistan’s military and its client-oriented interventionist project – which was, according to him, a vote of no confidence. He also refused to die. Shot in October 2022, Mr Khan literally walked away from the crime scene with multiple wounds, but even before he was through with surgery, he was demanding a free and fair election. Well, he didn’t get that election. What he got was almost 200 cases slammed against him. And three of them have been ruled against him in the last week. Today, 5 days are left in the election. Yet today, Mr Khan, ostensibly Pakistan’s most popular leader by measure of any survey or poll, remains incarcerated, with a total of 31 years imprisonment, and more verdicts pending Sure, some of the legal cases against Khan may have some legs to stand on. Sure, Khan made mistakes in office – big mistakes – including pairing up with the military to crackdown on journalists, including myself. In fact, Mr. Khan’s infamously being on the “same page” with the previous army chief was one of the reasons I was hounded out of Pakistan several years ago. But this isn’t about me. Nor is this about Mr. Khan. Nor is this about the 10,000 workers and leaders of his party who have been incarcerated and also denied due process. No. This is not about any one of us. This is about the battle for Pakistan’s soul. The country is the world’s fifth largest. It’s 250 million men, women, persons and children form the world’s fourth largest democracy. But beyond the numbers, Pakistan is a country premised on equal rights. It was carved out of a bloody Partition with India, with millions killed and displaced, for the sake of equal rights for the Muslims and minorities of the Subcontinent. But after turning on the minorities, the country’s ruling elite has now turned on the majority. For decades, the nuclear-armed military has been blamed for its ruthless interventionism, backed by its important friends in Washington, London, Beijing, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. But today, its fair to surmise that its not just the military that has turned on Pakistan. An entrenched and greedy political, landed, bureaucratic, judicial, corporate, media and intellectual elite – which doesn’t wear the military’s uniform, but conducts business from its drawings rooms and conference rooms just like the military does from the garrisons, is also to blame. In their unending and unconstitutional thirst for power, Pakistan’s civil and military elites are so out of touch with the people that today, they’ve conducted political overkill in this naked power grab. With 5 days to go in the elections, Khan stands convicted, his party stands dismantled, and the stage is set for a government made up of the same players that the military establishment has previously targeted and compromised. But today, the moral ramifications of this ruling are also worth mulling over.. One of Pakistan’s finest sons – a flawed hero, but still a hero to millions – humiliated matrimonially for sheer political points. Today’s ruling has hit millions of Pakistanis in a dark place. It’s triggered many emotions. Fear. Shock. Anger. Disgust. Humiliation. Even revenge. Many are swearing they will seek this revenge on election day. They might, they might not. It depends on the day. It also depends on the soldiers who will be manning those polling stations. But I must say that the West’s support for the Pakistani military, and its silence and inaction for the humiliation and incarceration that Khan and thousands of his party members suffer, is also cause of this vengeance. I hope its never exacted. But I fear it will be. With five days left for the what is possibly the most important election in the country’s 76 year old history, I’d say its time for Washington, for London, for Brussels, and even for Beijing, to break their silence about the atrocities underway in Pakistan. Remember: you might get your choice of government for the next few years... But you will have turned the people of the world’s fifth largest country against you. So speak up. Think of options. Think of warnings. Think of diplomacy. And I hate saying it, think of sanctions. Do you really want a nuclear-armed Myanmar? Or an Islamic North Korea? Or an Iran circa 1979? No. You don’t. But guess what. That’s where the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is possibly headed. That’s the trajectory. Stop it. Stop it now. https://t.co/hb6eXACMKL

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