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A boy rides past a paramilitary check post, that was set afire by the supporters of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan
Pakistan’s military pays the price for Imran Khan's arrest
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested in Islamabad on Tuesday as he appeared in court to face corruption charges. The move triggered nationwide protests against the military, the country’s most powerful institution, with clashes killing at least one protester late Tuesday. A judge is expected to rule Wednesday on whether to grant a request by authorities to keep the former PM in detention for the next 14 days.
Khan was ousted in 2022 in a no-confidence vote and has faced countless anti-corruption and terrorism charges ever since. While the arrest was ostensibly linked to those charges, it came after Khan accused a military intelligence official of plotting to kill him. Experts say Khan crossed a red line with his accusation, which the military immediately denounced. His arrest “was essentially a warning from the military,” says Eurasia Group’s head of South Asia Research, Pramit Chaudhuri.
Pakistan has historically revered its military, but Khan’s arrest triggered a brazen backlash from supporters. Videos circulated by the former PM’s media team show his backers smashing through the gates of the military headquarters in Rawalpindi. Khan supporters also demonstrated outside military compounds nationwide.
To Chaudhuri, the mass protests indicate that “at the end of all of this, Khan will almost certainly be released, and that he will actually come out stronger.” And this comes just in time for Sunday’s provincial election in Punjab. Pakistan's military has since been deployed to the state to maintain order.
In an attempt to regain power, Khan dissolved assemblies earlier this year in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, provinces where his party has a stronghold. Pakistan’s constitution stipulates that an election be held within 90 days of dissolution. But PM Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling party argued the votes should be held at the same time as national elections in October, hoping that the economic and political conditions would be more favorable for them by then. The Supreme Court decided the delay was unconstitutional, and the elections are expected to be an opportune moment for Khan to capitalize on his growing popularity.
Tuesday’s arrest will only add to that momentum. Chaudhuri says Khan is by far the most popular politician in Pakistan. “He controls the streets and has positioned himself as a populist agitator against the entrenched establishment, Shehbaz Sharif, and the military,” he says.
“As far as legitimacy is concerned, he has almost all of it in Pakistan.”
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff walk to a helicopter on their way to Cape Coast in Accra, Ghana, Tuesday March 28, 2023.
What We’re Watching: Zambia warns against anti-LGBTQ protests, AI scares tech leaders
Zambia warns against anti-LGBTQ protests ahead of Harris’s arrival
Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema is warning against anti-LGBTQ protests ahead of US Veep Kamala Harris’s visit Friday, part of a three-nation Africa tour aimed at shoring up US relations across Africa.
While in Lusaka, Harris will (virtually) address the Summit for Democracy, a Biden-crafted international conference designed to bolster democratic institutions and norms amid rising global authoritarianism. But dozens of Zambian opposition MPs claim the summit also aims to introduce gay rights to the country.
The opposition Patriotic Front Party reportedly plans to hold protests before the summit, but Hichilema has called for calm and for a dialogue with his opponents. Earlier this month, he vowed to maintain Zambia’s laws criminalizing consensual same-sex acts, which carry a life sentence.
This isn’t the first time gay rights have come up during Harris’s tour. In Ghana, she noted that LGBTQ rights are human rights but did not discuss the proposed Ghanaian bill to criminalize LGBTQ identification and advocacy. Harris’s visit also follows Uganda’s adoption last week of a draconian law that criminalizes identifying as LGBTQ, which could involve the death penalty in some cases.
Is AI getting too smart, too fast?
Yes, according to billionaire Elon Musk and over 1,000 other artificial intelligence luminaries, who've published an open letter calling for a six-month "pause" on further AI development. Why? So it doesn't threaten humanity by creating digital minds so powerful that they can't be controlled by humans.
But perhaps "humanity" is code for white-collar jobs. After all, Goldman Sachs just warned that AI could put up to 300 million people out of work in a decade. Most at-risk jobs are desk gigs, not blue-collar manufacturing jobs we once thought would be wiped out by automation.
Should that be more or less important than stopping AI from automating political misinformation in social media? And what if China takes advantage of the pause to beat the US in the AI race? Let us know your thoughts on taking an AI break here.