South Asia Center Nonresident Fellow Ahmed Humayun writes for 3 Quarks Daily on protests in Pakistan led by the leader of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, Imran Khan:
The 2013 elections in Pakistan gained the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) the government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province as well as the third most prominent position in parliament. This striking success was a vindication of Imran Khan, PTI’s leader, who had struggled for many years to break into a sclerotic system dominated by autocratic political parties organized around familial and financial interests.
But the results were a crushing disappointment for Khan and many of his supporters who became convinced that the elections had been rigged against them. Over the last several weeks, the country has become embroiled in a severe political crisis in which Khan and some of his followers are staging protests in Islamabad against last year’s election results and the current government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the head of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N).