Establishment and political direction
The PTI was established to address dissatisfaction among Pakistan’s main establishments, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and the military. Mr Khan, who retired from cricket in 1992 at the height of his fame, has become deeply involved in the red tape of running a charity, including the bureaucratic hurdles he encountered when opening a hospital for cancer patients in 1994. influenced. Khan founded the party on April 25, 1996, amid a public scandal involving Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s family and an increasingly polarized party. Days before the party’s official announcement, his hospital for cancer patients was targeted in a bombing raid during the launch.
The party was populist in nature, seeking to improve living standards across Pakistan and calling for greater rights for women and religious minorities, while denouncing government corruption. However, it did not necessarily garner support from the grassroots. In many ways, the party served as Khan’s political vehicle, but from its inception it was vague about how it aimed to achieve the vague goals outlined in its platform. The party had virtually no supporters during its first decade of existence. In fact, it won only one seat in parliament in 2002, and that seat was occupied by Khan himself.
become famous
From 1999 to 2008, Pakistan was ruled by Pervez Musharraf, a military man who came to power in a coup. The PTI had little support before the coup, but things have improved as the country has returned to civilian rule and electoral competition has been restored. By the end of President Musharraf’s term, the means of communication (and political organization) had fundamentally changed, with the proliferation of mobile phones and the provision of widespread access to the Internet. The PTI successfully garnered support through social media campaigns and organized its first mass rally (jalsa) in Lahore, Pakistan’s largest city, in October 2011.
The party, which had previously focused on infrastructure and justice issues, has now taken a more vocal stance against Pakistan’s dependence on foreign actors. That rhetoric particularly resonated after years of military rule, when the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan (2001-2014) had a huge impact on the country’s policies. Additionally, the party’s nuanced approach to dealing with the Afghan Taliban attracted support from the country’s Pashtun population, which had been disproportionately affected by military activity along the northern border.
By the time of the 2013 general elections, Khan had become one of Pakistan’s most popular politicians and had the support of several veteran politicians. In addition to winning a minority of seats in parliament, the PTI won a majority of parliamentary seats in the Pashtun-majority province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, allowing it to form a government there.
Despite the central government being mired in scandal under the troubled government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the PTI gained fame for reforming Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. PTI’s policies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have improved accountability in the province by increasing transparency and giving citizens greater access to legal recourse. Health services and public education also improved during the party’s term. By contrast, Sharif was disqualified from holding public office by Pakistan’s Supreme Court in 2017 after being suspected of having ties to a foreign shell company in 2016. Mr Khan was found to have assets overseas after pledging to “keep all his assets in Pakistan”, but this did not disqualify him and the PTI was released in 2018 amid a wave of anti-establishment sentiment. seized power.
imran khan government
The PTI government, which ruled from August 2018 to April 2022 under Prime Minister Khan, faced formidable domestic challenges. It inherited a balance of payments crisis caused by huge debt burdens, such as those imposed by the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic that began in early 2020 has caused financial stress as the PTI remains hesitant to impose lockdowns and a surge in infections has placed a huge strain on the health system. further increased. Meanwhile, in February 2019, India imposed a short-term ban on Pakistan over allegations that Pakistan had provided safe haven to militants seeking to end Indian rule in parts of Kashmir. After launching airstrikes, Mr. Khan caused controversy by cracking down on suspected extremists and closing religious schools. Suspicion of indoctrination.
Khan attempted to change the direction of Pakistan’s foreign policy. He sought to attract foreign aid and investment from an increasingly wide range of countries on favorable terms in the hope of reducing Pakistan’s dependence on specific foreign companies. Meanwhile, he became a mediator between the Taliban and the US, contributing to the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021 and improving relations between Pakistan and the Taliban. Controversially, just hours after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Khan attended a long-planned meeting with the Russian president. President Vladimir Putin, like much of the world, sought to isolate belligerent leaders.
Pakistan’s economic slump and the government’s crackdown on militants have polarized PTI supporters and critics, while the government’s attempts to steer foreign policy independently of the military have undermined its ties to the military establishment. made unstable. Making matters worse for the party, Mr Khan in October 2021 tried to influence the appointment of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, inciting further hostility in the military. Ta. In March 2022, opposition forces in parliament moved to hold a vote of confidence in Khan’s government. On April 10, he was removed from office after a small number of PTI members refused to vote in his favor.
PTI crackdown
Pakistan remained polarized even after the opposition came to power. In July, just months after Khan was ousted as prime minister, the PTI won most of the contested seats in elections in Punjab, the country’s largest province and traditionally stronghold of the ruling PML-N. . However, as the PTI gained new momentum, Khan began to face a number of legal challenges. He was banned from holding public office for several years in October after the election commission found that he had sold gifts from the state and hid assets while he was prime minister. In November, he was shot in the leg in an assassination attempt amidst heightened sentiment in the country.
Mr. Khan has repeatedly claimed that military officers were involved in the November assassination attempt, but the military called the accusations “highly irresponsible and baseless” on May 8 after Mr. Khan made the allegations at a recent rally. It was publicly rejected as “there is no such thing.” Khan appeared for a hearing in Islamabad on May 9, but was detained by dozens of militia members for failing to cooperate in an ongoing corruption investigation. The dramatic arrest sparked demonstrations and violence by Khan’s supporters against military and government buildings. The PTI was subsequently cracked down, with media coverage and internet access temporarily restricted, and dozens of the party’s prominent members defecting.
In January 2024, just one month before the elections, the Supreme Court ruled against the Election Commission’s previous decision to ban PTI from officially appearing on the ballot papers, citing irregularities in the internal elections. supported the decision. When elections were held in February, PTI candidates ran as independents, and the party once again won the largest share of directly elected seats in parliament. However, it fell short of the number of seats needed to form a government on its own, and the PML-N was able to form a government with support from the PPP. PTI also tried to get independent members to register with a small party, the Sunni Ittihad Council (SIC), to win pro-rata seats among political parties, but the Election Commission warned that SIC won seats. It was determined that the list of candidates had not been submitted in time. . After all the seats were allocated, the number of PML-N members exceeded the number of PTI members in the National Assembly, even though the PTI won more elections.
