Pakistan - Imran Khan's Fight For Survival

A desperate Imran Khan finds political opportunity in the midst of national calamity. Can the embattled shehbaz sharif see his challenge off till the impending general elections?

- Hasan Zaidi

In what can only be called a biblical catastrophe, a third of Pakistan is under water. Unprecedented and erratic climate change-induced monsoon rains have killed over 1,300 people and led to more than three million being displaced. Thousands of livestock animals and millions of acres of standing crops have been washed away by the raging floods. Over a million houses have been left uninhabitable. Scores of small dams, bridges and roads are broken. The economic costs are staggering: estimates by independent economists put the cost of compensation, rehabilitation, repair and reconstruction at over $16 billion. In a country that narrowly avoided a debt default less than two weeks ago by securing an IMF tranche of $1.17 billion, and which is grappling with soaring inflation-latest official figures put it at over 27 per cent, a 47-year high-a massive debt and slowing growth, everyone is clueless about where these kind of resources will come from.

But if you were to listen to former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan these days, it would seem none of this is of much consequence. Focused entirely on his politics, he is continuing his campaign of rallies in various cities, attacking the current coalition government as a "cabal of crooks", spinning unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about how and why the West conspired against him, and repeating his mantra since he was ousted from office in April by a vote of no-confidence that the only solution to Pakistan's problems is immediate elections.