If Nawaz dies, will Imran survive?

I suppose we should have expected something like this. Imran Khan's chief reason for putting opposition leaders in jail was to wear their resistance down until they confessed to their crimes and agreed to hand over to him some of the so-called "looted" wealth they are supposed to have accumulated. For this purpose he has reportedly put former Prime Minister Shahid Khakan Abbasi in a cell on death row, with no sunshine at all and a toilet in a corner of the cell. Miftah Ismail, a very distant relative of mine, has been jailed even though he wasn't a minister until the last three or four months of the previous government. The former Managing Director of PSO (Ikramul Haq) has also been imprisoned, even though Imran Khan's right hand man Asad Umar says the man is honest.

Conspiracy theories abound, as they usually do in this country. Some say Nawaz Sharif was slowly being poisoned to make him relent, and those who were doing the poisoning didn't realize they had gone too far. Now that Nawaz is near death, Imran Khan has panicked, as he knows he'll be blamed. Personally, I think Nawaz lost the will to live after the death of his wife and the apex court's judgement about him being dishonest (though no one has suggested that the judges who did so should themselves have been closely examines to discover if they are honest and upright).

In an ironic twist of fate, Imran Khan is desperately trying to persuade Nawaz Sharif to go abroad for medical treatment, ironic because he had always said that he would not allow anyone on trial to leave the country. Not long ago he declared that he would remove the air conditioner and TV set in Nawaz's cell. The man is certainly mean and vindictive, not fit to be the ruler of even a small banana republic.

If Nawaz dies (his doctors have expressed apprehensions about his survival), one can say with confidence that the country will see more disturbances. I predict that Imran Khan won't last long and will have to flee the country, as Nawaz's supporters will certainly hold him responsible for Nawaz's death. Imran is already in trouble due to the massive inflation which has made lives miserable, for which Maulana Fazlur Rehman has launched his march to destabilize the government.