Pakistan's Anti Govt Protests Explained Through Memes

NEW DELHI: For the past few months, and more so since Pakistan’s Independence Day in August, Pakistan has been facing a political crisis (of sorts).

The protests against the Pakistani government are being led by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), who have found common ground against Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The protesters have accused Sharif of corruption, and have called into question the legitimacy of the elections that brought Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) into power in 2013.

The protests, which began on Pakistan’s Independence Day on August 14 with marches led by the PTI and PAT in Islamabad, have called for Sharif’s resignation.

Culminating in the PAT’s Inqalab March and the PTI’s Azadi March, the protests are being led by PAT’s Tahir ul Qadri and PTI’s Imran Khan, and we don’t mean this Imran Khan:

We are referring to this Imran Khan *swoon*:

As we mentioned, Imran Khan has beef with Sharif because he claims that the latter benefited from rigged elections, and should immediately step down. This is Sharif’s reaction to the charge:

Nevertheless, thanks to Pakistani Army Chief Raheel Sharif, talks between the two sides did take place, and went something like this:

If Khan’s perseverance sounds annoying, meet Tahir ul Qadri.

Qadri is a Canadian cleric who has long called for revolution.

This June, Qadri’s commercial flight was diverted to Lahore by the Pakistani government, who did not want him to land in Islamabad.

Qadri, like Khan, has called for Sharif’s resignation, but he has gone one step further and instead of demanding fresh elections as has Khan, has called for a national government composed of technocrats.

All said and done, whilst Qadri and Khan continue pushing for Sharif’s resignation, the Pakistani army is the only to entity to have benefited from these protests. Many even believe that the army was behind the protests, in an attempt to weaken the Sharif government and to demonstrate that the army continues to hold primary sway in Pakistan.

For the rest, this pretty much sums it up: