When Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf came to power in 2018, many in the country felt nothing but happiness. In this context, the PILDAT president said, it is difficult to find political leaders in democracies who don’t resort to populism. “Even Gandhi rose above populism and took unpopular designs like fasting for releasing assets of Pakistan in the custody of Indian government after partition,” he said. For example, Zaigham said, Imran Khan reduced every problem to the problem of corruption and presented himself as the solution. For Laclau, Palmer says, a populist movement is a collection of otherwise unrelated unmet “demands” aggregated by manipulative populist leaders.

Source: The Express Tribune May 22, 2022 23:28 UTC