https://iclfi.org/pubs/wh/2025-khan
Imran Khan has been languishing in Adiala Jail since August 2023 because he dared to challenge Pakistan’s servility to the US and refused to support Ukraine. Since then, the establishment has slapped more bogus charges on him to keep him locked up and crush his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, and supporters.
As communists, we don’t agree with Imran Khan’s politics. But we firmly believe that it is not up to the US or the Pakistani military to decide who should rule the country. Therefore, we support the fight for Khan’s freedom. We differ in our strategy, however: to free Imran Khan, it is necessary to mobilise all the masses of Pakistan! For an all-Pakistan general strike!
The Sharif-Bhutto government is fearful for its stability due to its extremely narrow base and a collapsing economy. To maintain itself, it is carrying out mass repression against anti-government activists—from the arrest of hundreds from Khan’s party and the Pakhtunkhwa National Awami Party, to the recent arrest of members of the Awami Action Committee in Gilgit Baltistan, to leaders of leftist political parties such as the Mazdoor Kisan Party, not to mention daily state violence against the Baloch people.
To fight back, the struggle to free Khan must be joined up with the struggle to free other leftist political prisoners because they all have one common enemy: the Pakistani government, backed by the US. When Khan supporters demand the freedom of those fighting for Gilgit, KP and Balochistan, it will forge ties of unity between the oppressed nationalities in Pakistan and the majority. This could strengthen the overall movement against the government and the US, which is bleeding Pakistan through the IMF, and could inspire a similar struggle on the other side of the border where Trump is slapping huge tariffs on India and Bangladesh.
For a general strike to free Imran Khan and leftist political prisoners!
Down with US imperialism! Inqalab Zindabad!
