Imran Khan: I’m like Mandela and Gandhi – it’s only a matter of time until they jail me again

Imran Khan insists he and his party are still capable of returning to power in Pakistan’s next elections despite the mounting criminal charges against them – comparing himself to embattled leaders from history like Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi.

The former prime minister was speaking to The Independent about the political crisis that has gripped Pakistan since his dramatic arrest from within the premises of the Islamabad High Court, which saw his supporters launch massive protests across the country that included unprecedented displays of anger against facilities associated with the country’s all-powerful military.

The government and military have responded with a crackdown against Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party that has seen thousands of its workers arrested and Khan’s own residence besieged by police, while some of his most senior aides and former ministers have quit the party under pressure from the authorities, facing the threat of arrests and jail time.

Khan, who has spent much of the weeks since he was freed from detention travelling to and from courts seeking fresh bail orders, says the efforts of his lawyers can only be successful for so long.

“I know they will put me in jail [again],” he tells The Independent. “It’s a matter of time, because they are scared that if I’m outside it gives hope to my party.”

The former cricket star says about 170 criminal cases have been filed against him since he was ousted from office in a vote of no confidence, with the charges ranging from corruption, murder, arson and blasphemy to sedition and terrorism. He denies all the charges against him.

He – and his party – say the cases against them are politically motivated to prevent Khan from returning to power and that he expects more to come, joking that he is “waiting to reach a double century soon”.

He adds: “They’re trying to use all these tactics to make sure that we are completely weakened and unable to contest elections by putting everyone in jail. Ten thousand [PTI] workers have been picked up so far.

“They’re scared. And I think they will try and put me in jail and try to disqualify me.”

Pakistan is due to hold a new general election no later than November this year, and a key state election in Punjab – where the state capital Lahore is seen as a PTI stronghold – is now long overdue after the election commission said it would be unsafe to hold a vote in the present political climate.

Despite the drain on his resources from fighting to stay out of jail, Khan says he is still actively “preparing for the elections”. He is confident that “the more they oppress us, the more the support for the party... goes up”.

Khan is a polarising figure in Pakistan, with critics accusing him of enacting his own crackdown and censorship against political opponents during the three years he was in power before losing a no-confidence vote in parliament. His successful 2018 election campaign is widely believed to have been backed by the military, and Khan says it was the then-army chief who made the call to remove him from office in April last year.

He has since survived an assassination attempt that left him with nerve damage, and Khan has repeatedly accused the “establishment” – the government working in tandem with Pakistan’s powerful military – as being behind it. The government and military have denied all such accusations.

Khan is under no illusions as to the sway the military still holds and has offered to engage in talks with them. But he claims that if elections do take place, there is nothing the generals can do to stop his supporters turning out. “The military mind does not understand the dynamics of elections. Once people come out to vote, you cannot stop them. I’m telling you that they will not be able to stop the public whenever the elections [take place].”

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Defending his campaign to return to office, the former prime minister says he is not driven by personal ambition and compares himself to leaders like Mandela, Gandhi and independent Pakistan’s first governor-general Muhammad Ali Jinnah who had “a mission”, he says.

“I never came into politics as a career. I would never recommend politics as a career to anyone, especially to my boys. I always say never go into politics because it is the worst career.” He says he views “politics as a mission where you are... for instance Nelson Mandela. You know, when you are actually working for your freedom, you’re struggling for your freedom. Or [say] Jinnah or Gandhi. These were leaders who I look up to because they were selfless. They didn’t go in for positions, they went in for a mission.”

Asked if his mission has faltered as a result of the massive crackdown on PTI in recent weeks, Khan says his party is facing “shock and awe tactics” from the government. “The abuse that is taking place is unprecedented. Never has a party [in Pakistan] had so much public sympathy and support as my party has now. So no matter how much pressure they put, you cannot wish the voters away.” He continues: “Looking ahead, nothing can beat PTI. Whenever there will be elections, PTI will win.”

After the wave of arrests including Khan’s in May, many senior members quit PTI and some formed a new party, publicly divorcing themselves from the former prime minister’s ideology. “The majority of people who have left have been under so much pressure,” he says. “They [the authorities] have shut their businesses, they’ve gone after their families. It’s never happened in this country before. They have gone after their relatives, just so that they would leave the party, they have put them in ‘dead cells’ – a small room – and they just shut you up.”

He believes that these are all attempts by the government to “suppress and repress this party”. He adds: “My entire senior leadership is either behind bars or is hiding. They put them in jail, they put so much pressure on them. A lot of people could not take the conditions in jail as it is the hottest time of the year.”

Despite the extraordinary challenges he is facing now, Khan says being prime minister was still “the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life”. He adds: “I never took a day’s holiday except for five days I was struck by Covid. I was in bed. Otherwise, I never took any holiday and it was just the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life. It was just work and nothing else. It wasn’t an easy life being the prime minister.”