 Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has been arrested after he was convicted in a corruption case. What does this mean for the crisis hit country? Human rights organizations have called for a probe into a migrant boat disaster that led to 82 deaths in the Mediterranean Sea. But will this have any impact on this terrible trend? This is the weekend episode of Daily Deep Brief and we'll be looking into these issues. But before that, please do hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. Our first story is from Pakistan where a trial court has convicted and sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan to three years in prison. Subsequently he was arrested on Saturday. Khan was on trial in a corruption case related to the alleged sale of official gifts. Now this case was one prong in a huge battle between the former Prime Minister and the Pakistani political establishment. The current Pakistani government which comprises the two major political parties has been desperately trying to prevent him from contesting in the upcoming elections. As of now it's unclear what the result of this verdict will be. The last time Khan was arrested that's a few months ago, massive protests took place in Pakistan. For an analysis, we go to Taimur Rahman, the general secretary of the Mazdoor Kisan Party. Taimur, thank you so much for joining us and first of all, could you maybe take us through what the specifics of this particular case are, the case under which Imran Khan has been convicted and sentenced and how does this affect his political chances as per the law? As you may have heard, Pakistan is once again in the international news because the former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to three years imprisonment and a hundred thousand rupees fine in the Toshakhana case. The Toshakhana case is that heads of state or heads of government may receive gifts from other governments or other people. But those gifts have to be put in a special place or with a special department called the Toshakhana department. And if the Prime Minister wants, as long as the Prime Minister is serving, the Prime Minister can take those gifts, those watches or suits or cufflings or whatever they may be and use them for the evening. If the Prime Minister wants, the Prime Minister can also purchase those gifts from the Toshakhana at a significantly reduced amount. So there's a certain percentage that you have to work out. If something is worth a hundred rupees, you pay a certain percentage of that and the gift is yours to own as private property. That is what Imran Khan in fact did. He was gifted some very expensive, he was gifted a very expensive watch and some other expensive things and he purchased those from the Toshakhana and sold them on the market and pocketed the difference. Now, the issue was that the amount of money he paid to the Toshakhana does not cover the necessary amount to get that thing from the Toshakhana. So that constitutes a violation of the law under which those gifts were taken by Imran Khan. That case of course went to court and in the final days of the trial, Imran Khan's lawyer in fact stopped appearing in court because he said that the case was heavily biased and this morning the court basically decided that Imran Khan was in fact guilty of corruption because he had given the Toshakhana less money than was its due according to that particular process. And now the result is that about 30 minutes after the decision was announced the Punjab police has gone and arrested Imran Khan. This time around there were no big riots etc and this is because on May 9th there was a huge riot in Pakistan and the army really went after that you know after the crowd and after the organizers of that. Nearly a hundred people were then pushed into the what is called the army courts which are basically military courts. They were not even in the civilian courts and many others were in civilian courts and there was a lot of pressure on PTI politicians to renounce Imran Khan and to give up the party and in fact a lot of people did exactly that. Right so I also wanted to talk about the fact that Imran Khan in the Pakistani political establishment they've been fighting this legal and political battle for over a year now especially after Imran Khan was overthrown. So does this conviction mark like a decisive moment what are his chances for appeal and you know how is that going to work out. Now this sentence has been you know delivered and I think the public opinion will be and my opinion personally also is that on the scale of the different kinds of corruption that we've seen in Pakistan this is not one of the you know a scandal of the scale and magnitude that we have seen in the past. It is a scandal precisely because Imran Khan always claimed to be absolutely clean pristine and pure but it isn't a scandal that has you know altered economic policy in any fundamental way. So the fact that the court has given the maximum penalty they could have given up to three years they could have given a year they could have given two years they could have given six months but they gave the maximum penalty also signals that in fact the real purpose of this entire case as well as of this conviction was to knock out Imran Khan from politics that is of course what the establishment has wanted and that is also what the current government wants. They want Imran Khan to be completely knocked out of the race because they are unable to really compete with his very aggressive rhetoric much of which is not necessarily true. I'm not saying that it's true but it is effective in the sense that it has managed to attract a substantive section of the population. So what seems to be happening right now is given the reforms of the International Monetary Fund given the conditions they've imposed there's going to be a high there is already and will continue to be a high rate of inflation a low rate of growth which is causing unemployment. For the PDM to go into elections which are due in October under these circumstances where they have not been able to revive the economy would spell disaster for them. For that reason I think they are knocking out Imran Khan from the race so that they are able to win almost unopposed. And what this means there's two things that this implies firstly that to to convict a prime minister is not a small matter. Unfortunately this has happened many times in Pakistan's history Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was even hanged. Other prime ministers have also been convicted including me and Nawaz Sharif and now again Mr Imran Khan. But it sets a very negative precedent because clearly these convictions are done with the intent of political victimization. Whenever one or another party falls foul of the military establishment such convictions follow and the result I think the conclusion that it will bring people to is that really there isn't much of a democratic process in Pakistan. The military pre-selects those people that are going to stand in election and those politicians who for that particular period in history have a very decidedly anti-establishmentarian position or anti-military position will be completely knocked out of the race through various legal and other means. That's what's happened in Imran Khan. So this is a very clear case in my opinion of gerrymandering the coming election. This is not to say that Imran Khan is not guilty of these things. I believe that the case there is also equally black and white that he is guilty of not paying the necessary dues in the Toshakhana case. I think that evidence is also clear but I think the particular conviction that has taken place, the timing of the conviction, everything that's been surrounding it the way his government was displaced and both of no confidence and so on so forth shows that the military has lost trust in Imran Khan and now after May 9th especially has really decided that they want to finish the Pakistan Tehriki in saaf. And finally one last question we know that the Pakistani National Assembly is said to be dissolved in a few days that's what the report says as well. So what lies ahead considering elections are probably going to be scheduled soon the political climate will definitely heat up so what lies ahead for Pakistan? It's sad to see that the parties that signed the Charter of Democracy that is the Pakistan People's Party as well as the Muslim League and the Charter of Democracy of course was signed much earlier in 2005 if I'm not mistaken and its purpose was to come to an agreement that political parties will not use the military establishment against each other they will not use unconstitutional means to destroy each other's government and they will not persecute each other when out of power and that sort of thing. Now it seems ironic that the parties that came together on this particular foundation that they would not persecute they would not use the military against each other they would not persecute each other are doing exactly that to their opponent which is the Pakistan Tehriki in saaf. In a sense we've come full circle the parties that were anti-establishment at one time have become the establishment and the party that was the establishment that is the PTI has is now seems to be anti-establishment of course none of these political parties are anti-establishment in the long run of things but they may have certain issues in the short run with the establishment they're not anti- establishment in a ideological sense or in a theoretical sense but they do disagree with one another policy here or there or have a falling out going to which you see these sorts of musical chairs. So what will happen next I believe that we are going to see an election very soon in which Imran Khan obviously having been convicted will not be able to participate and that through that means the establishment as well as the current government will try to ensure that they win the coming election that is what seems is going on in Pakistan thank you. Thank you Taimur very important reflection at a time when Pakistan is definitely going through both the political and economic crisis thank you so much we'll get back to you soon. On this show daily debrief and on people's dispatch we have consistently covered what is called the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. Over the past many years thousands of people from conflicted zones in Asia and Africa have been trying to escape to safer places in Europe. Now this involves crossing the Mediterranean Sea but as many of them are poor they often travel in ramshackled boats and they of course don't have visas so they're considered illegal migrants. Now European policies towards these migrants are very harsh their coast guards often ill treat them and there have been a number of cases of migrant boat sinking. This year has been especially deadly in the central Mediterranean region alone four 40-watt migrants were reported either dead or missing between January 1st and March 31st. One such incident took place in June when over 80 asylum seekers died after they boat capsized and sank off the Greek coast. Even at that time the response of the Greek coast guard was criticized. Now rights organizations after a study have demanded an independent and impartial probe. We go to Anish for more. Anish thank you so much for joining us we're taking you out of your usual beat today but to talk about something which is a disaster which also has really global implications in every sense of the word I think there was a lot of shock in June when the accident when the migrant boat tragedy took place as they call it migrant boat tragedy. About 82 people died you know and there were a lot of allegations about the insensitivity of the Greek authorities but as we have talked about many times on people's dispatch this is not a one-off incident this is actually part of a trend. 2023 has been a really bad year as you as we were just talking about so first of all maybe could you take us through what these organizations is in this case I believe it's Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch what have they specifically said regarding this tragedy. Also important I think to note because often once this once an incident of this sort happens there's condemnation for one or two days and after that then things go back to normal in some ways so it's very useful I think to sort of go back and see what happened that's also important and what do these organizations say. Yes so right now the problem that has been raised and the primary problem that has been raised is the fact that the Greek authorities are actually taking a position that is untenable with the sort of evidence that exists already out in public right now which includes apart from testimonies from you know various survivors there are also high witness accounts and this and there is also the fact that the manner in which the ship was wrecked also clearly indicates that there was a great deal of at the best at its best carelessness on the part of the Greek coast guard when they tried to tow this overwhelmingly you know this overwhelmingly populated boat but at the same and at the best it was a very clear sign of them just trying to sink the boat in a procedure that they knew would actually sink it down to the two what 15,000 feet of depth in the Mediterranean. This is definitely what is what is a part here because there is definitely a very what we don't know very well is apart from Greece there are multiple countries in Europe especially in the Mediterranean so I'm a very clear send the boat back sort of policy which essentially you know bases its entire methodology on just attacking any kind of migrant boats that come their way or come to their approach and pretty much that risks that put actual number of people at greater risk than they already are in. Obviously we're talking about a boat the capsized boat itself do not know the number of people the clear number of people because SQE is varying from about 500 to 750,000 sorry 750 people and that could and most of them are missing we only have about less than a hundred survivors and about 80 or 82 or so people about dead bodies were found a lot of them are missing and presumed dead by now with this point in time. So this is a massive boat tragedy obviously like calling it a boat tragedy at this point has made it you know a kind of numb of any kind of sensitivity at this point because this has become such a routine thing and you see the usual suspect because that's you know either taking you know very kind of dangerous maneuvers around the boats which maybe makes you in this case it was a very small cruise ship but in several cases there they actually travel in makeshift boats and very often they cannot really handle you know very you know troubled waters and so making dangerous maneuvers can also sink these boats, stowing and sink these boats so they know the kind of methods that can actually put these migrants or as we should actually call them asylum seekers at risk of you know at risk in a very dangerous area not but really we're talking about high seas at this point and this is something that is that the Greek authorities are trying to you know completely start with any kind of investigation into those parts they have not taken any kind of witness testimonies so far especially from the survivors who have stated that like multiple of them are very clearly associated that the authorities try to prove the boat and they are refusing to take that these testimonies into account in the current investigation and the investigation is only happening primarily because there are Greek people protesting against the they protested at the time when it happened in June and you know multiple media reports at the time actually reported very clearly documented the fact that the authorities were you know where to be blamed for the kind of the capsizing of the boat actually and the fact that they are dispensing all of this they're saying that they try to you know protect an already sinking boat that's their narrative at this point and which does not really you know fit well with the kind of evidence that we have is the reason why such a demand exists that they need a credible investigation now the question is what can be critical at this point because obviously Greek authorities are definitely not going to give you a very credible evidence or a credible investigation maybe European authorities in the EU can actually intervene but we do know like a significant section within the EU right now are quite conservative dominated and do not support any guy or do not have any sympathies for asylum seekers asylum seekers that we like it might go into a different trajectory but asylum seekers are there primarily because of the kind of interventions military interventions they've conducted in the across the Mediterranean especially in Libya and so and you need to also look at the larger picture because it's not just Greece as well it's pretty much almost everyone at this point doing pretty much the exact the same thing exactly the same thing of you know targeting boats targeting migrant boats and not caring whether or not it actually sinks them as long as they're just happy as long as they just do not have as many people coming into their territory right Anish it's important you mentioned the larger European context I think two or three points to note here one is the fact that of course if the migrants or asylum seekers do reach some of these countries their situation is really really bad often they're treated very badly in fact I believe Greece has an extremely poor record of what is called processing some of these asylum seekers which leads many people to actually dread you know being being captured by the Greeks in one way that's one point I think the other point of course like you said is that there is a European initiative by all the EU members in Italy is at the forefront of this also important to mention Italy here to actually restrict migration in various ways there's already a deal with Libya now they're trying to sign a similar deal with they have signed a similar deal with Tunisia as well they are offering millions of at least over a hundred million dollars dollars at least to actually curb what is migration Tunisia also taking a very strong right-wing shift so what you're saying is also I think equally you know it's worrying because the fact that everyone involved the countries from where these migrants are leaving the countries where the migrants want to go all of them are taking such a belligerent attitude towards those who are just escaping war escaping conflict yes exactly at this point this is a situation it's not even like we can't even use the kind of popular terms that we use like cash medical situation it's not really that it's pretty much them being stuck in one hellish place and trying to escape into another one and as you rightly pointed out like we is definitely like the whole processing system itself and the fact that you have to wait in scholar in like very slum-like conditions independently exposed and just being attacked there is pretty much no security or safety for them they are actually attacked by races we have reported on our platform itself about several multiple fires on you know refugee asylum seekers camps and in various instances and that actually you know makes them extremely unsafe to live there it's like it becomes very close to uninhabitable for many of these migrants as well and so as you pointed out like many of them do try to avoid getting into the hands of the authorities and sometimes rare cases some of these boats also have situations where they try to sink themselves just so that they do not get into the hands of coast guards who put them under you know even worse conditions so it's a very you know overall terrible situation and even when they when these countries like even the European Union when they may deals with countries like Asia with Libya they're not really you know giving them money to actually absorb them absorb these like Libya did at one point under the coffee where they did absorb these migrants who are escaping war in regions like Sahel and so on and you know giving them jobs giving them livelihoods allowing them to settle down in these territories and obviously none of these countries are doing that they just they're just using even worse more but not belligerent clearly violent methods to actually prevent these migrants from even coming into their territory let alone the process or you know gain any kind of work likelihood in those regions so this is a very terrible situation that we have to go through it's pretty much outsourcing the violence at this point and at this level that we're looking at it's actually creating a massive humanitarian situation right now you have to remember the numbers like ever since the invasion of Libya by NATO we have seen the numbers being in thousands annually in 2016 about 5,000 more than 5,600 people died or went missing like missing essentially also equals death because we do not get their bodies we do not know where they are and they're presumed that at this point have died on the Mediterranean and since then we have thousands and thousands every year you know being reported death and these are only documented cases we do not know how many of them like smaller ports smaller refugee groups have tried and failed and probably you know went missing in the Mediterranean as well because that the level of data that we have is still not that vigorous enough so these are just UNHRC reports and that itself shows a very grim picture at this point in time and that and pretty much everybody involved is guilty at this point of creating this humanitarian tragedy that pretty much rivals any other tragedy at this point on earth right now but thank you so much Anish for talking to us like you said I think the issue of refugees issue of migrants of asylum seekers it's there in Latin America it's there in many parts of Asia but definitely the Mediterranean region emerging as one of the hot spots so to speak and I think this poses a question not just to you know individual governments or coast guards but to the all of humanity in terms of how do we deal with such a vast section of our population which is which is undergoing substantial suffering trying to escape that and then you have this kind of treatment towards them thank you so much for shedding some light on this and that's all we have time for in this weekend episode will be back on Monday with more stories from across the world more experts giving their analysis of some of the key processes of our time some of the key developments of our time and how they impact the future so see you on Monday and please do hit that subscribe button