Imran Khan Aims to Make Graft-Prone Pakistan a Welfare State
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Imran Khan gestures to supporters during an election campaign rally in Karachi on July 3.
Photographer: Asif Hassan/AFP via Getty Images
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Imran Khan stepped onto a makeshift stage in a trash-ridden Karachi district at 1 a.m. to address hundreds of supporters who’d been waiting for hours. His message: vote out the city’s rulers who have failed to provide jobs, education, sanitation and healthcare.
“This is the first opportunity to free yourselves -- they, despite taking turns for the last 30 years, couldn’t give you basic facilities,” Khan told the cheering crowd gathered on Wednesday in Pakistan’s financial capital of 15 million people that’s beset with water shortages. His aim? “To make an Islamic welfare state out of Pakistan.”