Aleema Khan believes her brother inspired the revolution in Pakistan from behind bars on February 8, carried out by young men and women who came out against all odds.
The focus now is on winning back those seats that they believe were unfairly taken from them through alleged election rigging, she said at her home in Lahore.
She said that lawyers visited Imran Khan And he “sent very clear instructions that you must go out and protest outside the returning offices and take back your seats. The ones that were stolen.”
The government insists that the elections were fair and successful. But she firmly believes that Pakistan has witnessed widespread voter fraud.
“It was not Imran Khan’s voice that they took,” she told me.
“They took away the right of 15 million people to recognize the symbol. This bat was a symbol by which 15 million illiterate people recognized their candidate.”
Imran Khan is currently in prison
The cricket bat was a symbol of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, which was banned just before the elections.
Independents supported by PTI He won the largest number of seats in the electionsBut not the majority.
The late party was from Nawaz SharifThe man who many believed the army wanted to run the country was the first to declare victory.
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Pakistani elections 'full of surprises'
He is now trying to strike a deal with his opponents, rejecting any allegations of fraud by his party. But Ms Khan says her brother should not compromise.
“I can't speak for my brother now, but I will speak for myself,” she said.
“I would be very disturbed if I went and sat with the people who participated in the abuses, the human rights violations, the women, the way they were subjected to them, the homes that were broken into, the children that were threatened.
“I never expected they would be supported.”
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Pakistan is in political trouble after election surprise – what's next?
A security officer was killed after shooting at a polling station
Sharif was the first to come out and declare victory, saying that his party was the largest party and that Pakistan had no space to fight.
Nawaz Sharif. Photo: Reuters
Ms Khan says Sharif's return to Pakistan from exile, and the assumption by some in the establishment that he could take power again so easily, is an “insult to Pakistanis”.
It believes that independents enjoy a two-thirds majority and the right to govern.
The official results so far do not show that. But they are being challenged in the courts.
The next few days will be full of horse trading. But Ms Khan believes there will be a seismic change in these elections, whatever government is eventually formed.
She says it is no longer possible to ignore the will of the people.
