Imran Khan elected as new Pakistani PM
Pakistani lawmakers elected former cricket legend Imran Khan prime minister on Friday, paving the way for him to form a coalition government whose first major task will be to avert a brewing economic crisis.
Khan, 65, saw his party sweep to victory in a July 25 general election promising to fight corruption and lift millions of people out of poverty.
Pakistan has been plagued by boom-and-bust cycles and military coups since independence in 1947, as well as by militant violence in more recent years. Khan, a firebrand nationalist, has promised to create millions of jobs and build world-class hospital and school systems in the mainly-muslim country of 208 million people, Reuters reported.
Among his first challenges will be to decide whether to request an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout to ease currency pressures, or seek support from China and risk deepening Pakistan’s economic dependence on its neighbor.
“Imran Khan got 176 votes,” Asad Qaiser, the parliament speaker, said in confirming Khan’s victory over rival candidate, Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PMLN), who garnered 96 votes.
In a sign of the bitter political divisions roiling Pakistan, opposition lawmakers surrounded Khan and shouted “thief, thief Imran Khan” after he was elected premier.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) party holds 151 seats in the 342-seat lower chamber of parliament, short of a majority, but is expected to form a coalition government with smaller parties.
Khan, who will be sworn-in on Saturday, has yet to announce his cabinet.
His success in the election ended decades of political dominance by two dynastic powerhouses, the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N) of three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), founded and led by the Bhutto family.
But Khan will face a battle to push through his ambitious reforms and legislative agenda due to the thin majority in the National Assembly. The Senate, parliament’s upper chamber, is controlled by the opposition.
Opposition parties allege Khan’s path to power was made easier by tacit support of Pakistan’s powerful military, which has ruled the country for nearly half its history.
The army and Khan’s PTI deny any collusion. Newspapers and media outlets across the US launched a widespread effort Thursday aimed at combating the constant attacks from President Donald Trump as well as negative feelings about the media’s role in society.
“A central pillar of President Trump’s politics is a sustained assault on the free press,” said the editorial by the Boston Globe, which coordinated publication among more than 350 newspapers.
“To label the press ‘the enemy of the people’ is as un-american as it is dangerous to the civic compact we have shared for more than two centuries,” the Globe said.
Each of the newspapers, including some in states that Trump won during the 2016 presidential election, ran an editorial, which is usually an unsigned article that reflects the opinion of an editorial board and is separate from the news and other sections in a paper.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees freedom of the press.
Trump has frequently criticized journalists and described news reports that contradict his opinion or policy positions as fake news. At a rally in August, Trump described the press covering the event as “fake, fake disgusting news.” Trump has made fun of the media by announcing a “fake news awards.” He’s also threatened to enact new libel laws and frequently attacked news outlets via Twitter.
He lashed out again on Thursday, tweeting “THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country .... BUT WE ARE WINNING!”
He also wrote there was nothing he would want more for the United States than true freedom of the press, but that much of what the media published was fake news, “pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!”
The Republican president’s comments reflect a view held by many conservatives that most newspapers and other news outlets distort, make up or omit facts because of a bias against them.
In its editorial, the New York Times said it was correct to criticize the news media for underplaying or overplaying stories or for getting something wrong.
“News reporters and editors are human, and make mistakes. Correcting them is core to our job,” the Times said. “But insisting that truths you don’t like are ‘fake news’ is dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy. And calling journalists the ‘enemy of the people’ is dangerous, period.”