Imran Khan and Rajapaksa: 2022 was a year of political ousters in South Asia

The Indian subcontinent showed its politically dynamic and democratically fragile side in all its glory in 2022. The year began with former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's television appearances claiming a 'foreign hand' in ousting him from power, which he said was imminent. By the middle of 2022, people on the island nation of Sri Lanka at India's south made up their mind that they were done with the perceived presidential incompetence and corruption by the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksaand his administration.

Imran Khan was ousted from power on April 10 following a midnight no-trust-vote in Pakistan's National Assembly. As Khan's Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party members lost no-trust motion, their walkout from the National Assembly was followed by the opposition lawmakers rising on their spots to sing the country's national anthem. No Pakistani Prime Minister has ever completed a five-year term and neither Imran Khan nor 2022 could break this convention that over the decades has come to mark Pakistan's democratic fragility.

By the middle of 2022, the Sri Lankans marched to the President's House in Colombo, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksato flee the nation. Pakistan eventually got Shehbaz Sharif as its 23rd Prime Minister, while Sri Lanka got Ranil Wickremsinghe as its President.

When Imran Khan said he will play 'till last ball'

On the evening of March 31, the televisions in Pakistan showed a manwho had won the country its first-ever Cricket world cup in 1992. Still Pakistan's Prime Minister then, Imran Khan's body-language was timid. There were tongue-slips that resulted in diplomatic fiascos. There were unverified claims that gave fertile ground toopposition politicians to attack Khan's legitimacy as Prime Minister. Khan claimed that lawmakers were being paid 200 to 250 million Pakistani rupees to vote against him in the impending no-trust-vote. In what appeared to be a tongue-slip, Khan said that 'America... no not America some other country', had a hand in destabilising his government.

"I have played cricket for 20 years and I will play till the last ball. I have never given up in my life," Khan said with a triumphant pretense. "You will see that I will emerge stronger after the vote (on no-confidence), no matter what the result of the vote is," Imran Khan said on March 31 in a television address.

Ten days later, Khan was ousted from power after a no-trust-vote citing cricketer-turned-politician's alleged involvement in Toshakhana scandal.

Khan was replaced by Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader and brother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Months later in November, Khan faced an attempt at his life when he was shot in the leg while addressing people in Pakistan's Punjab province.

Both for democracy in Pakistan as well as for Imran Khan, 2022 could not bring the best that Pakistani citizens and Khan's supporters would have expected.

When Sri Lanka's economic decline brought people on streets

Stoked by an unprecedented economic decline, Sri Lanka had its most significant change at the country's helm in July 2022 when people stormed into President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's office to demand his dismissal from duties. President Gotabaya's ancestral home, too, was set on fire by agitating protestors. People of all walks of life affected by 10-hour power outages, shortages of essentials such as cooking gas and fuel joined the protest movement holding the government responsible.
Gotabaya fled for his life, first to the Maldives and later to Singapore.

Public fury against Gotabaya and his family members, who held prominent positions of power in the government, surged this year as Sri Lankans suffocated amid crippling shortages and soaring living costs that his government reportedly failed to address. The agitations, which first manifested as pocket protests, built up between April to June at Colombo’s seafront and several other locations across the island, and culminated in the unprecedented show of resistance in the capital on July 9.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa officially resigned on July 15. The protesters, too, left the main anti-government protest camp at Colombo's Galle Face promenade where they had been stationed since April 9 branding it as the 'Gota go home village' (Rajapaksa go home).

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was replaced by Ranil Wickremesinghe as Sri Lanka President.

For the Indian subcontinent, the 2022 ended with Nepal re-electing Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba for a second term. Whereas Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh sought a fifth term in the elections that are scheduled to be held in January 2024, against the demands of opposition that has been seeking immediate elections in the country.

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