Turmoil In Pakistan May End Up In Military Take Over!

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan while talking to Bruno Macaes for the “New Statesman” dated 23 May, 2023 says in no uncertain terms that “he was afraid that his country, Pakistan is headed towards martial law”.Khan has further warned that the spiraling political crisis in Pakistan could end as a brutal military dictatorship”. If Khan’s political outbursts could be taken as its face value then what is clear is that “all was not well inside Pakistan and that the all powerful military headed by General Asim Munir may have been thinking big for Pakistan.

Let’s recall General Yaahya Khan, Zia-ul-Haq, and Miyan Pervez Mussarraf to name a few military Generals who ruled Pakistan at different intervals of history.

Military takeover is not a surprising phenomenon for Pakistan if one were to look at its history beginning the grand partition as back as in 1947.The Pakistani population is used to this almost a customary occurrence, I guess.

The same Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party chairman Imran Khan while, let’s recall, talking to Al Jazeera on May 21, 2023 had said that he does not have a problem with the country’s army chief but accused the Chief of the Army Staff of trying to stop him from returning to power.

Military takeover is not a surprising phenomenon for Pakistan if one were to look at its history beginning the grand partition as back as in 1947.The Pakistani population is used to this almost a customary occurrence, I guess.

Look how he describes his tongue-tied friendship with COAS Asim Munir in his own words, “I have no problem with him, but he seems to have a problem with me”. This explains in a candid manner as to how the two dignitaries take each other. The one obviously is a political dignitary and the other is a powerful military in Uniform. However, it is just a one sided story as Army Chief has not made any direct comments against former PM Imran Khan.

But yet in an oblique manner the Army Chief has warned those who created mayhem and damaged billions and billions worth of properties including military installations on May 09, 2023 shall not be spared and that the miscreants will be brought to justice.

In the meanwhile, the British newspaper, the Guardian has published its views on the current political upheaval in Pakistan that began right on May 9, 2023.

The Guardian, May 21, 2023, writes, and we quote as it is , “The standoff between Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister, and the country’s military is yet another sign that the political system created by the army is inherently unstable. Since independence, Pakistan’s generals have become ever more involved in running the country-and the civilian leaders ever more dependent on their backing. None of the nation’s 31 PM’s has completed a full five year tenure. Politicians survive in office only if they do as they are told”.

If one were to believe the tough views expressed by the Guardian then what becomes clear is that the Pakistani Army has a greater say in running the entire nation.

And it is so and it could be so, that to protect the Islamic state, the institution of the Army has to control the state or intervene in an indirect manner so that the nation-state remains safe and sound from the internal and the external threats that are there since the partition days, as seen by Nepali observers.

Having said all these, the Guardian continues saying that “trying to regain power against the army’s wishes is a dangerous business. Mr. Khan is pushing ahead regardless. The standoff between the Army and Mr. Khan and his party has broadened into a wider conflict. What is emerging is a confrontation between two distinct political groups. Pitted against a section of the judiciary and Mr. Khan are, it seems, the Army generals and the parties they endorse. Unless resolved, the contest will paralyze the country. Even China, Pakistan’s close ally, is publicly calling for its chaotic politics to be resolved”.

We wish to conclude this write up with what Ayesha Siddiqa who is a senior fellow with the department of war studies of King’s College London and was previously the director for the Pakistan Navy writes in the Nikkei Asia, May 21, 2013, that Imran Khan can’t win back power by targeting Pakistan’s military”. She writes that “Imran Khan may have believed that he could exploit dissatisfaction and internal differences within the army to his political advantage. Some top generals may be unhappy with General Munir, but scenes of public disrespect towards the military and attacks on military symbols had the effect of reminding them that they would be better off sticking with their chief”. She writes that “there are also signs that the army chief intends to try the PTI leadership in military courts using the 1952 Army act.

This does then mean that neighboring Pakistan has been engaged in a showdown between General Asim Munir , the chief of the Army Staff and Imran Khan-the cricket star and the former Prime Minister of Pakistan.

This war of “ego” may be costly for Pakistan.

In the end, let’s hope that peace prevails in Pakistan and the regional political stability is maintained.