The sports star and tabloid fixture staring down Pakistan’s army
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—In August, Pakistani officials approached the party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan with an urgent request: Postpone a rally planned for the following day in the capital, Islamabad, for fear of clashes with another protest. Azam Swati, a former senator in Khan’s party, drove through the night to the jail housing Khan.
Seated across a glass separation wall, the two men spoke for almost two hours. Khan called off the rally. “Asim Munir, this country is now a tinderbox," said Khan, who believes his jail meetings are bugged, addressing Pakistan’s army chief, according to Swati.
“But I will not be the one to light the fire." Imprisoned over a year ago, Khan, a cricket star turned politician—or “Prisoner 804" as many call him—is locked in a confrontation with the military, which has controlled the country’s politics for decades. From jail, he still makes decisions big and small for the party he built. Since prison rules allow him to meet his legal team, he has appointed lawyers to many of the party’s top positions.
The army’s falling out with Khan, which led to his dismissal as prime minister in 2022 and then imprisonment, has pushed the nuclear-armed country of 240 million into political and economic turmoil. Since being ousted from power, he has galvanized popular anger with the heavy-handed role the army—which staged coups in the past—has in the country’s affairs. Khan told The Wall Street Journal in an interview from jail that he would fight on.
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