Democracy versus the Public in Pakistan

Editorial

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson, on September 9, 2026, joined 5,000 pro-Israel people from a global Israeli group that also includes Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein and signed an open letter rejecting the accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and warning that the charge has become a dangerous vehicle for scapegoating Jews and fueling antisemitism around the world.

He is the same person who, in the past, took initiatives to block any move to stop the sale of UK military hardware to Israel. In April 2024, Boris Johnson said it was “shameful” to call for the UK to end arms sales to Israel.

Writing in his Daily Mail column, Mr Johnson said it would be “insane” for the UK to end military support, which he said would be “willing the military defeat of Israel and the victory of Hamas.”

The same Boris Johnson, on Friday, September 18, 2026, wrote a column for the British newspaper Daily Mail, voicing concern for former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is convicted and is in jail under corruption charges. Defending Khan, Johnson writes that nothing he has said or done during his term justifies the way he is being treated by the current dispensation in Islamabad.

Recently, The Jerusalem Post published an opinion article stating that US President Donald Trump repeatedly calls on Israel’s President Isaac Herzog to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Why is Trump silent on the fate of imprisoned former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan? Khan is ill, denied visits by his sons, and is languishing in a Pakistani jail as Pakistan tries to boost its international image by brokering a peace deal between the US and Iran. This statement from a major Israeli newspaper indicates how important Imran Khan is to Israelis, and they sometimes bracket him with their own Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, according to international courts, is a genocidal leader who launched a genocide in Gaza.

Meanwhile, in social media posts, certain pro-Israeli American-Pakistanis who are allegedly linked with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) are collecting funds through fundraising campaigns for the PTI protest of September 27 and raising funds, according to them, for campaigns to put the Imran Khan case before ‘global voices’.

In Pakistan, government circles blame Imran Khan Niazi for once again getting exceptional space in Western media, with more than 150 articles appearing in his favour in European and North American media since he was sent to jail. These circles have reason to make this claim because no former prime minister of Pakistan has received this much space in foreign media, including the late Benazir Bhutto, who was the first Muslim woman to become prime minister and had been in jail several times, nor Mian Nawaz Sharif, who served three times as prime minister of Pakistan.

While journalistic circles believe that Imran Khan is the father of two sons of the House of Goldsmith, the famous Israeli lobby in the United Kingdom, so the linkage of AIPAC, Imran Khan and the House of Goldsmith is not something surprising, and getting media space for Imran Khan is not an issue or something difficult for this strong Israeli lobby. The relationship between Imran Khan Niazi and the Zionist lobby is not a new debate in Pakistan, and government circles should understand the reality that the Zionist lobby always stands with its interests and Khan had been one of them in the past.

Now it is up to the ruling party how to manage this reality because Western media will kick off a campaign in favour of Imran Niazi as the September 27 protest call is not far away.