Pakistani political dissident says he’s been assaulted and intimidated in Britain

Shahzad Akbar, an aide in Imran Khan’s government, has told Declassified UK that he has been the target of a sustained campaign of “transnational repression” since fleeing to Britain following the US-backed 2022 regime change in Pakistan.

The former Pakistani cabinet minister, barrister, and close ally of the currently incarcerated Imran Khan, told Declassified’s Mark Curtis that he was brutally assaulted on his doorstep last Christmas Eve. This followed his protests against Khan’s imprisonment outside the Pakistani High Commission in the week leading up to the attack.

Akbar told Curtis:

Imran Khan’s illegal incarceration is not because of any cases or corruption charges. It is because of the personal vendetta of the current army chief, Asim Munir, who Imran Khan fired as the ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] chief when he was prime minister.

Despite being a political exile living in the UK, Akbar says he has been attacked and intimidated, raising urgent questions about Britain’s duty to protect dissidents.

Akbar said that the UK takes threats seriously when they come from Russia or Iran, “but they must do everything to protect people from Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, because we have rights too”.

Pakistan recently mediated talks between the US and Iran because of its ties to both. However, Khan’s incarceration has cast a shadow over it.

The Washington Post said that despite Pakistan not recognising Israel, its ties with the US “through deals in crypto, minerals and counterterrorism”, have helped Pakistan’s role as a mediator. 

But as the US and Britain embrace Pakistan as a strategic partner, they are complicit in the very repression Akbar fled from.

Featured image via Associated Press of Pakistan

By The Canary

Source link