Politicians flocking to party of ex-cricket star
KARACHI, Pakistan — Pakistan’s politicians are defecting in increasing numbers to the party of opposition leader and former cricket star Imran Khan, a shift that shows his rising influence and prompted allegations he enjoys the support of the country’s powerful military.
The intensified jockeying comes ahead of a national election July 25. So far this year 248 politicians, including dozens of federal and provincial lawmakers, have changed sides — the most on record, according to the Free and Fair Election Network, an Islamabad-based watchdog. Of that 92 politicians have joined Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the second-largest opposition party and main rival of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, headed by former Premier Nawaz Sharif.
Khan, whose anticorruption campaign prompted the Supreme Court last year to disqualify and press criminal charges against Sharif, knows he needs to win over a large number of turncoat politicians. The key province is Punjab, which is Sharif ’s bastion.
“You need to have a critical mass of these defections, or several big-name defections, to have a real impact on the election,” said Michael Kugelman, a senior associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.
If Khan is elected he will face a U.S. that remains distrustful of Pakistan’s efforts to stamp out terrorism and continues to withhold billions of dollars in military aid. For Washington, a Khan victory would be an uneasy prospect. The 65-year-old is a staunch critic of the war in Afghanistan and U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan. He has also courted rightwing religious leaders, some with past links to the Afghan Taliban.