Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan on Friday drew parallels from 1970 when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman-led Awami League wasn’t allowed to form the government despite winning the majority in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in the general elections.
“What happened in East Pakistan? The largest party won, but they were not given the right. Instead, we took action against them,” said Khan drawing parallels between the 1971 liberation war and 2022 in Pakistan.
“At the age of 18, I went to play an exhibition cricket match in Bangladesh. We won two matches against India. What surprised me was that every Bangladeshi in and outside the stadium chanted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. That day, I realised the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan is the biggest tragedy,” Khan said in his first public remarks since the assassination attempt on him on Thursday.
“Now, this is what they are trying to do again by eliminating me – to destroy the biggest-elected party in Pakistan,” Khan said.
Khan was shot in the leg as he waved to crowds from a container mounted on a truck from where he was leading a protest march on the capital to press for early elections and calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
In erstwhile East Pakistan, a huge majority of the Bengali nation had favoured the Awami League, under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in the 1970 Pakistani general elections. The party had emerged as the largest party in the nation, gaining the exclusive mandate of Pakistan in terms both of seats and votes.
The Pakistan Peoples Party failed to win any seats in East Pakistan. The Awami League’s failure to win any seats in then west Pakistan was used by Zulfikar Bhutto who argued that Mujibur had received “no mandate or support from West Pakistan”. The then leaders of Pakistan, all from West Pakistan and PPP, strongly opposed the idea of an East Pakistani-led government.
Meanwhile, Khan said on Friday that he would resume his protest march to Islamabad after recovering even as his supporters staged nationwide protests that blocked major roads.
He said two shooters had tried to assassinate him, in a country with a history of politically motivated violence. He said one person was killed and 11 others were injured in Thursday’s attack in Wazirabad, about 170 km (106 miles) southeast of Islamabad.
Khan also said the failed assassination attempt against him will push the people of Pakistan to take to the streets like in Sri Lanka.
“Either we will have a peaceful revolution or a bloody one,” the former prime minister said, adding, “People will take to the streets like Sri Lanka. There will be chaos.”