The magazine's May issue will include an exclusive interview with the ousted prime minister in which he discusses his desire to take back power.
TIME posted the first image of the magazine cover on their official Twitter account.
The tweet stated, "Imran Khan has been removed from office and has been the target of an assassination attempt, but he continues to be the most well-liked politician in Pakistan."
https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1643063981945372673?s=20
Imran Khan was deposed in a no-confidence vote in the parliament exactly one year prior. Since then, the PTI leader has been calling for immediate elections as a result of the pressure he puts on the government through periodic rallies across the nation attended by thousands of his supporters.
Imran Khan organized two lengthy marches last year in an effort to pressure the government into holding early elections; during one of them, the PTI leader was targeted for assassination in November.
Khan accuses his rivals, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and others, of carrying out the attack.
Even though Khan was disqualified from running for office by the election commission and more than a hundred cases involving allegations of corruption, sedition, blasphemy, and terrorism were filed against the former premier over the course of the past year, he continues to enjoy the highest level of support from the public, with thousands of ardent supporters prepared to take to the streets at the sound of his voice.
It is pertinent to mention here that if Pakistan's economic woes are reaching a new nadir, the trajectory was established during Imran Khan's term. A revolving door of finance ministers was compounded by bowing to hardliners. After appointing renowned economist Atif Mian as an adviser, Imran Khan fired him just days later, owing to a backlash from hardliners because Atif Mian is an Ahmadi, a sect of Islam they consider heretics.
In 2018, Imran Khan pledged not to follow previous administrations' "begging bowl tactics" of foreign borrowing in order to end Pakistan's cycle of debt. But less than a year later, he struck a deal with the IMF to cut social and development spending while raising taxes in exchange for a loan. Mismanagement exacerbated global headwinds from the pandemic and soaring oil prices.
Meanwhile, little was done to address Pakistan's fundamental structural issues. Few people pay tax, least of all the feudal landowners who control traditional low-added-value industries like sugar farms, textile mills, and agricultural interests while wielding huge political patronage networks stemming from their workers' votes. On October 10, 2021, only 2.5 million Pakistanis filed tax returns.
When asked for his step-by-step plan to get Pakistan back on track, Khan is light on details. After elections, he says that a "completely new social contract" is required to enshrine power in political institutions rather than the military. If the army chief "didn't think corruption was that big a deal, then nothing happened," Khan complains. "I was helpless." But the path to this utopia remains murky.