Pakistani corruption and democracy
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Pakistani corruption and democracy is John Kiriakou's standing assessment of why Pakistani democratic government does not work, delivered on 19 November 2025 immediately after he declined an Indian television interview on the same subject and warned that he would be threatened for what he was about to say.

The claim

"Pakistani corruption is so deep and so broad that it's almost impossible for the country to have a true functioning democracy."

The host's interjection, "corruption's always high, it's Pakistan", came from the viewer's own question rather than from Kiriakou, who states the point as a structural finding rather than a national characteristic.

The second factor

Alongside corruption he sets the record of the armed forces. "Pakistan also has a long history of military coups and other interventions into its democracy."

The two together produce the conclusion reached in the exchange that followed, that what exists is not really a democracy but a military dictatorship with a democratic veneer, a formulation the two men arrived at jointly rather than one Kiriakou states alone.

Imran Khan

On the imprisoned former prime minister, Kiriakou is unambiguous and repeats himself. "Imran Khan should not be in prison." And again: "But Imran Khan shouldn't be in prison. He should be allowed to defend himself and have his day in [court]."

The position is notable because Kiriakou has been publicly attacked by Khan's party for a separate assessment about Pakistani military capability, and because he does not soften the corruption finding in order to make the defence of Khan easier.

The pattern

What makes Khan's imprisonment ordinary rather than exceptional, in Kiriakou's telling, is that it is the norm. The exchange runs through the names, Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto, and arrives at a grim summary of the job: that anyone standing for it should expect to end in a cell, and that the alternative ending is assassination.

His own conclusion, offered as a question rather than a judgement, was "I don't know who would want the job."

See also

- Imran Khan
- The CNN India refusal
- Pakistan Station (2002)
- The 2025 India,Pakistan clash assessment
