Pakistan’s Imran Khan took an early lead in a tightly-fought election as his main political rivals complained of rigging in a contest already tarnished by violence and widespread allegations of army interference.
With counting continuing early Thursday, unofficial tallies from local television stations and exit polls showed Khan, the 65-year-old former cricket star and leader of the Movement for Justice party, or PTI, edging in front of jailed former premier Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
Not sure if it is still the case, but until a few years ago there had not been a single PM of Pakistan who had gone their full term in office without being, shot, arrested or overthrown.
He will fit right into the Pakistani political scene then. They are another one of the countries that practices what l call the politics if convenience. Once you are no longer a convenience to certain powers that be, you are goneski. In this case often executed for corruption, if you aren’t assassinated before then.
Not sure how long it was the case, but for a long, long time, no PM of Pakistan saw out their elected term. There were so many coups and assassinations going on, that calling the country a democracy was something of a farce. I have only been there once. I arrived in Lahore via train the day they threw Muhammad Ali Bhutto (Benazir’s father) in gaol. Three women grabbed a hold of my arm and said get us out of here. I never left the station. We got tickets for the next train to the west as soon as possible, and crossed the country in 20 hours. Our compartment was a 4 berth sleeper, which we locked and didn’t open. So, we were a bit surprised when early in the morning we woke to find a ticket inspector standing in the middle of our compartment.
A quick bus to the border followed the train. At the Khyber pass there was a sign over the highway which read, “Welcome to the Khyber Pass. Please reach your destination by sun down as we cannot guarantee your safety after that.” By the side of the road was a market, unlike any other l have ever seen before or since. Automatic rifles were heaped up everywhere, and the locals wandered around heavily armed. They probably considered themselves near naked if they weren’t wearing 3 gun belts. It was and still is a wild, wild area. The local mountain range is called the Hindu Kush, which translates as Killer of Hindus. Gives you some idea of how wild the area is.
