Peter Bach in CounterPunch:
The persistent rumours that imprisoned Pakistani politician Imran Khan is dead have been crackling away like Lahore firecrackers these past few weeks. They feel less like revelations than the arrival of something long predicted. Or are they just the manifestations of an over-inventive public and mistrusted military?
Khan, if still alive, has come to resemble Julian Assange when Assange was in confinement. He is not so much an Assange-like selfless warrior as a nonetheless remarkable human being living only a parallel existence to the rest of us. He has become, in the public imagination at least, a man shimmering darkly from his prison cell like a character in a gothic novel.
And to think that Imran Khan was remarkable even before politics propelled him into this other light—now darkness—of a country that never seems truly at ease with itself. Remember, Pakistan emerged through a combination of Jinnah’s political leadership, British colonial decision-making, and the wider politics of Indian nationalism, communal angst, and the snuffing out of empire.
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