IMRAN KHAN IS THE PROXY OF PAKISTANI ARMY

Pakistan military’s penchant for ruling the country is not a secret. More than half of the 71 years since the formation of Pakistan, the military has directly ruled the country. But military regimes do not command the respect and recognition given there is an overwhelming opposition to military rule. Mindful of the dire consequences if it fiddled with democracy and took direct control, there has been a tectonic shift in Pakistani military’s strategy in recent years. Since independence, Pakistan military has been pulling strings behind the scenes regarding defence and foreign policy matters whenever any democratically-elected government came to power, and the latter pusillanimously put a stamp of approval without a little whimper of protest.

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But when three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who enjoyed widespread support among the masses, decided to establish his authority, he was unceremonious ousted and sidelined. The Pakistani army used every dirty trick and even forced the judiciary to collude with it in first toppling Sharif from power on corruption charges, seen by many as a selective targeting, before sending him to jail. The army was miffed with Sharif who sought to assert civilian supremacy by imposing his government’s writ on internal and external affairs, in particular with his decision to improve relations with India. The generals had every reason to feel angry and cheated as Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) was the main beneficiary when it came to power for the first time in 1990, when the army engineered the defeat of the then Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government.

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With both PPP and PML-N out of its favour, the army needed a third political force. Who else could fit the bill other than Imran Khan who was emerging as a potential prime ministerial candidate by promising a clean government and a welfare state in a country which had become synonymous with corruption? The army zeroed in on him and the first signs of future collaboration emerged when it gave its tacit support to his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) which along with cleric Tahir ul-Qadri took out a march to Islamabad to seize Parliament in 2014 in its bid to oust Sharif government.  That Imran Khan and Pakistani army were working in tandem was revealed by none other than the cricketer’s party president Javed Hashmi on the day of the seizure of the headquarters of the state broadcaster Pakistan TV. At a press conference, Hashmi dropped a bombshell by saying that Khan had told him that he was plotting with the army to oust Sharif government and that some members of the country’s top court were also involved.

It had by now become ample clear that there was no love lost between the powerful army and Nawaz Sharif and the latter was trying to come out of the shadows of his masters. The relations took a turn for worse when Pakistan’s widely read newspaper Dawn published a news story in 2016 citing a meeting where in the civilian government told the senior military officials to do more on the fight against armed groups following the mounting international pressure. The generals were told in no uncertain terms that the failure to take action against the armed groups could invite the country international censure as well as isolation. As expected, all hell broke loose and the military saw a vicious campaign against it by the Sharif government in leaking details of what was supposed to be a confidential meeting.

That proved to be the final straw. With writing on the wall clear, Sharif started taking on the army more aggressively. His accusation that the army was not only in the know but facilitated the entire operation of a terrorist attack on the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people was a deliberate ploy. Sharif wanted to portray the image of his government as helpless and the military generals as main villains in the country’s inability to fight against the militant groups as demanded by the US and other countries in exchange of financial assistance. While Sharif’s attacks against military generals became shriller, he   committed the gravest mistake of his life by simultaneously opening another front against the judiciary following the Panama paper leaks in which he along with his family and friends were named for their links with offshore companies. As the proverb goes: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”, the army and the judiciary joined hands to form a formidable alliance against Sharif, and it became clear that Sharif’s days were numbered!

Imran Khan smelled the rat and petitioned the court which ordered the formation of a six-member joint investigation team (JIT), which included four members from Federal Investigation Agency, National Accountability Bureau, Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence. With majority of the members drawn from Pakistani military and intelligence, it was a known outcome. As expected, Sharif was found guilty and disqualified for holding public office.

Unlike previous elections, Pakistani military, this time, decided to prop up a government which lacked a massive mandate and would always be dependent on it for running the affairs of the government. Had it not been the overt and covert operations by Pakistani army and the dirty intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, Imran’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party stood no chance of emerging as the single largest party. Pakistani military’s interference began early this year when several lawmakers of Sharif’s party defected in Balochistan province all of a sudden and formed Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) along with independents. That BAP is the pro-military party is not something which is a secret in Pakistan.

As the elections approached, lawmakers of Sharif’s party were coerced into deserting the party with the threat of corruption charges. There were media reports of massive rigging during polls in favour of Imran Khan’s party. It was not as if the military leaders had any special affinity for Khan. Their primary interests lay in ousting Sharif from power.

As it turned out, Imran’s PTI emerged as the single largest political party but way short of the numbers to form the government on its own. Everything was planned to the perfect and the results suited the army generals. It took several days before Imran could stitch together a government with support from several political parties, including military-backed BAP, and other independents. 

With the sword of uncertainty permanently hanging over his head, Imran would have little time to go against the army. This is an ideal situation for the Pakistani army as it can dictate its policies on the incumbent government. The only difference this time is the army will have complete stranglehold on the government unlike on earlier occasions when it restricted itself to foreign and defence policy issues. In Imran Khan, the army has found a perfect lame duck prime minister who will provide legitimacy to the military-controlled government.