Pakistan’s politics were plenty toxic even before the failed assassination against ousted former Prime Minister Imran Khan. When Khan was removed from power following a parliamentary vote of no confidence in April, he claimed Pakistan’s military and its friends in Washington wanted to silence him. He then kicked off a series of protest marches that have drawn massive crowds.
In October, Khan insinuated that the army had killed a journalist, an uncharacteristically blunt frontal assault on Pakistan’s army, and the country’s head of military intelligence felt compelled to call an unprecedented public press conference to deny the charge. Officials in the current government, led by Shehbaz Sharif, accused Khan of terrorism, illegally receiving money from foreigners, and other forms of financial fraud. Then, during a protest rally earlier this month, Khan was shot in the leg, some of his supporters were wounded, and one was killed.
It’s all part of a three-way fight between Pakistan’s current government, its powerful and politically meddlesome military, and Khan, a former cricket star and playboy who governed as a supporter of Muslim fundamentalism. Khan blamed the attempt to kill him on Prime Minister Sharif, the Interior Minister, and a senior military officer. If some Pakistanis who doubted past charges of conspiracy find them more plausible now that shots have been fired, critics within the government have accused Khan of staging the shooting to discredit Sharif and win sympathy.
The suspected gunman provided conflicting accounts of his own motives before finally settling on “blasphemy” as Khan’s unpardonable offense. Khan himself claims there was more than one shooter. The government and military are dragging their feet on launching a formal investigation. Even with one, the mysteries surrounding this event are unlikely ever to be solved, and each side will believe the version of events it chooses to credit.
The political temperature continues to rise. Since Oct. 28, the still popular Khan has led what he’s billed as another “Long March” across the country toward Islamabad, the capital, to protest his ouster as Prime Minister and to demand early elections, which he says would restore him to power with a large popular mandate to clean up corruption and uproot a deep-state-style conspiracy to keep power in a very few hands. He is popular enough that his rivals and enemies have no intention of giving him that opportunity. The government is not required to hold elections until October 2023.
Khan’s challenges and this latest political intrigue will only make it harder for Sharif’s government to manage an economy in deep trouble. Decades of waste and corruption have taken a cumulative toll, and Khan’s populist economic policies as Prime Minister only added to the IOUs of a country that was already billions in debt, particularly to China. Recent floods that killed almost 1,500 people and impacted millions of lives have inflicted tens of billions of dollars in damage. Inflation has reached historic heights. Current Prime Minister Sharif has worked hard to win a $7 billion relief package from the International Monetary Fund, which would require Pakistan to, among other things, cut state subsidies to help Pakistanis pay their soaring energy bills. An austerity budget and more spending cuts are badly needed to bring Pakistan’s books a bit closer to balance, but Khan, seeing an unmissable opportunity to attack the government, has denounced the cuts. He claims, implausibly, that if he becomes Prime Minister again, the cuts won’t be needed.
A confrontation is coming. Once his leg has sufficiently healed, Khan will rejoin thousands of his supporters and continue their march toward Islamabad. Men holding guns will be waiting, and no one is likely to back down.
VANDERHOOF, B.C. – British Columbia Conservative Leader John Rustad has been re-elected in his riding of Nechako Lakes.
Rustad was kicked out of the Opposition BC United Party for his support on social media of an outspoken climate change critic in 2022, and last year was acclaimed as the B.C. Conservative leader.
Buoyed by the BC United party suspending its campaign, and the popularity of Pierre Poilievre’s federal Conservatives, Rustad led his party into contention in the provincial election.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
VANCOUVER – Predictions of a close election were holding true in British Columbia on Saturday, with early returns showing the New Democrats and the B.C. Conservatives neck and neck.
Conservative Leader John Rustad was elected in Nechako Lakes, and 20 minutes after polls closed, his party was elected or leading in 46 ridings, with the NDP elected or leading in 45.
Among the early winners were the NDP’s Ravi Kahlon in Delta North and Niki Sharma in Vancouver-Hastings, as well as the Conservatives’ Bruce Banman in Abbotsford South.
It was a rain-drenched election day in much of the province.
Voters braved high winds and torrential downpours brought by an atmospheric river weather system that forced closures of several polling stations due to power outages.
Residents faced a choice for the next government that would have seemed unthinkable just a few months ago, between the incumbent New Democrats led by David Eby and Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives, who received less than two per cent of the vote last election
Green Leader Sonia Furstenau has acknowledged her party won’t win, but she’s hoping to retain a presence in the legislature, where the party currently has two members.
Elections BC has said results are expected quickly, with electronic vote tabulation being used provincewide for the first time.
The election authority expected most votes to be counted by about 8:30 p.m., and that the count would be “substantially complete” within another half-hour.
Six new seats have been added since the last provincial election, and to win a majority, a party must secure 47 seats in the 93-seat legislature.
There had already been a big turnout before election day on Saturday, with more than a million advance votes cast, representing more than 28 per cent of valid voters and smashing the previous record for early polling.
The wild weather on election day was appropriate for such a tumultuous campaign.
Once considered a fringe player in provincial politics, the B.C. Conservatives stand on the brink of forming government or becoming the official Opposition.
Rustad’s unlikely rise came after he was thrown out of the Opposition, then known as the BC Liberals, joined the Conservatives as leader, and steered them to a level of popularity that led to the collapse of his old party, now called BC United — all in just two years.
Rustad shared a photo on social media Saturday showing himself smiling and walking with his wife at a voting station, with a message saying, “This is the first time Kim and I have voted for the Conservative Party of BC!”
Eby, who voted earlier in the week, posted a message on social media Saturday telling voters to “grab an umbrella and stay safe.”
Two voting sites in Cariboo-Chilcotin in the B.C. Interior and one in Maple Ridge in the Lower Mainland were closed due to power cuts, Elections BC said, while several sites in Kamloops, Langley and Port Moody, as well as on Hornby, Denman and Mayne islands, were temporarily shut but reopened by mid-afternoon.
Karin Kirkpatrick, who is running for re-election as an Independent in West Vancouver-Capilano, said in a statement that her campaign had been in touch with Elections BC about the risk of weather-related disruptions, and was told that voting tabulation machines have battery power for four hours in the event of an outage.
West Vancouver was one of the hardest hit areas for flooding, and Kirkpatrick later said on social media that her campaign had been told that voters who couldn’t get to a location to cast their ballot because of the extreme weather could vote through Elections BC by phone.
— With files from Brenna Owen
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
VICTORIA – Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau has lost her seat in the legislature after changing ridings to Victoria-Beacon Hill.
Furstenau lost to Grace Lore, the minister of children and family development in the previous NDP government.
The Green leader was first elected 2017, when her party played a key roll in helping the New Democrats form government with a confidence and supply agreement between the two parties.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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