00:00Once the charismatic face of Pakistan's new dawn, Imran Khan now stands as a stark symbol of his
00:06country's descent into political repression and institutional decay. Hello and welcome,
00:12my name is Pankaj Mishra and you are watching One India's The Writing on the Wall.
00:16Arrested in August 2023, he remains jailed at Adiyala Jail in Rawalpindi, serving a 14-year
00:23sentence on multiple corruption-related convictions, the most prominent being the
00:28Al-Qadir trust case. But for weeks, not a single verifiable photograph, video or live communication
00:36has emerged from Adiyala prison. His legal team, family, even close party aides have been consistently
00:43denied access in spite of a court order granting regular visits. His son, Qasim Khan, has publicly
00:50demanded proof of life, warning that the prolonged silence and isolation amount to psychological
00:57torture. In India, voices like that of Sashi Tharoor, though careful to avoid direct interference,
01:04have called out the silence. Tharoor said, the opacity surrounding Imran's condition is deeply
01:10troubling. He said, and I quote, you can't make someone disappear. He argued that even as an
01:17internal matter of Pakistan, the humanitarian dimension cannot be ignored. The fear is not just
01:25about one man. It's about the broader erosion of democratic norms in Pakistan. The lack of
01:30transparency combined with reports of brutal treatment toward even his close kin, including
01:37alleged police assaults on his sisters when they sought to meet him evoke memories of enforced
01:44disappearances and custodial deaths that have marred Pakistan's history.
01:49Why is this happening then? For the establishment in Islamabad, both civilian and military, Imran remains
01:57a potential political threat. Decades of baggage notwithstanding, his broad appeal among youth,
02:04urban middle classes and rural poor continues to challenge traditional dynastic politics and the
02:10military's influence. By isolating him, cutting off contact and suppressing information, the regime aims to
02:17neutralize not just a man, but a movement. Many analysts see this as a chilling signal.
02:25Dissent will not just be penalized. It may be erased. So the question is, where does it go from here?
02:33If Pakistan succumbs to this politics of erasure, it risks further alienating significant swathes of its
02:40population, especially the youth that once rallied behind Imran Khan's promise of change.
02:46Remember, the new dawn for Pakistan. Moreover, human rights groups, both domestic and international,
02:53are already mobilizing behind his family's pleas. A release of verifiable evidence of life or third
03:00party oversight of his condition could avert a humanitarian crisis. For the world watching,
03:06the stakes are clear. Pakistan's experiment with democracy is at a crossroads and the fate of Imran Khan
03:14may well be its early warning alarm.
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