As the country faces mass discord and violence in the aftermath of Khan’s arrest, we need to understand that Imran Khan is not the victim here. Pakistani democracy is. This crisis is of the former Prime Minister’s own making. Those who butcher democracy with their own very hands cannot be regarded as revolutionaries wielding flags of change. The very profiteers of authoritarianism cannot be deemed the champions of democracy.

Amid massive protests that saw tens of thousands of people on the streets this month over the proposed judicial reforms that aim to curb the independent Israeli Supreme Court’s power, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to delay his contested plans. Not fully giving up, he reckoned that ‘an extremist minority’ was carrying out the protests and paralyzing the country. Recent political showdown shows otherwise.