Imran Khan replaced as PTI head

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan, currently in jail facing myriad charges he says are rigged to keep him from contesting elections next year, was replaced yesterday as head of the party he founded, officials said. Khan launched the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in 1996. He was replaced as party chairman by Gohar Khan, a barrister not related to Imran, a party official said. The change was forced after the Election Commission of Pakistan warned PTI last month they risked losing their emblem -- a cricket bat -- unless an internal ballot was held for party officers. Election symbols are crucial in a country where the adult literacy rate is just 58 percent, according to World Bank data. Khan, a former international cricketer, who captained Pakistan to World Cup victory in 1992, was barred from standing in the party poll while in prison. "This is a temporary arrangement," said Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari, PTI's media spokesman. PTI is struggling against a widespread crackdown, with leading party figures either jailed or forced to leave the party. Politicians in the South Asian country are often tangled in legal proceedings that rights monitors say are orchestrated by the powerful military, which has ruled the country directly for more than half of its history and continues to enjoy immense power. "A PTI supporter will vote for the election symbol, for Imran Khan," political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi told AFP yesterday. "He (Khan) remains the moral leader of the PTI."