Pakistan’s opposition leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been arrested and jailed by a lower court order, reportedly in a cell with C-Class facilities. The court found the 70-year-old leader guilty of concealing gifts he received during state visits abroad as the Prime Minister between 2018 and 2022. Imran Khan is the chairman of his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which translates into Pakistan Movement for Justice. Following his conviction and jail, Pakistan’s election commission banned Khan from contesting elections and holding public office for five years. His legal team is preparing to appeal the lower court verdict in the higher court, and he may get some relief – a bail or a stay on the lower court ruling.
In India’s eastern neighbourhood of Myanmar, 78-year-old pro-democracy leader Aung San SuuKyi has been convicted of a series of “trumped up” charges and sentenced to 33 years in prison. SuuKyi was arrested and jailed near the national capital, Naypyidaw, after the Myanmar military staged a coup in 2021 on the eve of forming a new government after a landslide victory in national elections. Since she returned to Myanmar in 1988, she has been mostly in detention except when Myanmar had an elected government in which she held a position equivalent to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (2016-2021).
Imran Khan and SuuKyi are pro-democracy icons in their respective countries and enjoy massive support from ordinary people. Now, both are in jail and practically out of the political milieu.
Interestingly, Bangladesh, too, has a similar case. The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus, who wanted to launch a political party in 2007, has been in the crosshairs with the current Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina. Muhammad Yunus, born in 1940, has been close to every government that came to power in Bangladesh since its creation. It included the government headed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s first President and Sheikh Hasina’s father.
In the latest twist, Muhammad Yunus is accused of using his powerful friends in the US to harass the Bangladesh government. Does this sound similar to Imran Khan’s narrative that the US is behind all his problems – from toppling his government to sending him to jail?
Muhammad Yunus has been an extremely influential intellectual on the global stage. Besides being the pioneer of Grameen Bank, which pulled millions out of poverty and never had any non-performing assets (NPA), he has been part of think tanks worldwide. He is a serial entrepreneur and champions the idea of social business. His last book, A World of Three Zeroes: The New Economics…, calls for zero poverty, unemployment, and net carbon emissions through social business. If you don’t hear much about him in India, it’s because of India’s microcredit entrepreneurs who invented for-profit microcredit organizations.
The Indian experiment resulted in corruption, cheating, and loan sharks, bringing a bad name to what Yunus stood for. He objected to the Indian microcredit boom, which was bound to bust, and it did. Yunus’ Grameen Bank charges roughly 24% annual interest. That’s exorbitant, but his borrowers pay up within a fortnight or so, and interests don’t add up to much by then. His average borrower would borrow an average of $5 and pay up the same evening or the next day. It helps people experiencing poverty who cannot earn because they might not have even $5 to start their day with their businesses – selling vegetables, buying hens, setting up omelette shops, etc.
While Yunus is respected globally for the 8 million plus women who benefit from Grameen Bank, he is no longer an unblemished icon in his country. In the charged polarized political climate of Bangladesh. The foreign nations, especially USA and China are taking deep interest in the coming polls in Bangladesh.
Imran Khan, Aung San SuuKyi, and Muhammad Yunus have taken great pain and suffering to live up to their supporters’ aspirations. But their foray into politics has not been successful yet. They are facing innumerable hurdles. (IPA Service)
By Arun Kumar Shrivastav