PM Imran Khan squirms as FATF blacklist haunts Pakistan

NEW DELHI: "I am a democracy. I was elected after bagging the most votes in Pakistan and won from five constituencies," Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan recently said while speaking at a function.

In the same breath, he declared, "We are safe today because of the sacrifices rendered by our armed forces. The reason I did not have any problems with the Army and the military supported every agenda of my government is because of my clean record."

For all practical purposes, it is impossible to tell where the military's rule ends and where Khan's begins. The most recent evidence of the hybrid and seamless nature of the current regime came with the rushed passage of legislation aimed at hounding Opposition politicians under the guise of countering money laundering and terror financing. Under the garb of complying with the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Khan's government steamrolled eight pieces of legislation in mid-September that target the political Opposition. In this effort, his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has served its real master�the Pakistan Army's notorious Inter-Services Intelli"I am a democracy. I was elected after bagging the most votes in Pakistan and won from five constituencies," Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan recently said while speaking at a function.Pakistan People's Party (PPP), claimed that their members received mysterious phone calls telling some to stay away from the parliamentary proceedings, thereby paving the way for the regime to bulldoze their way through a joint session of parliament.

The Opposition had previously defeated several Bills in the Senate, where it has a numerical majority. But by herding together the Senate with the National Assembly in a joint session, and forcing some three dozen Opposition parliamentarians to stay away from the vote, the regime managed to get a majority to piggyback clauses that go way beyond the FATF requirements. (IANS)

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