View: No calm likely in Pakistan amid strained home, foreign ties

BY AVINASH MOHANANEY

The ultimate allegation that an opposition party can level against the government in Pakistan is of compromising on Kashmir with India and being petrified of the latter. Ayaz Sadiq of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) charged Imran Khan government with releasing Wing Commander Abhinandan under fear of imminent Indian attack.

He recalled a meeting chaired by Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to take opposition into confidence before the release where army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa was also present. Sadiq was making a statement on the floor of Pakistan National Assembly on October 29.


What started as an opposition protest against skyrocketing inflation and downturn in economy has become a highly acrimonious political exchange between the entire opposition on one side and Prime Minister Imran Khan on the other. The army leadership is obviously becoming a target of opposition for being on the side of the PM. Halfway through his term, the only outcome that Imran Khan can showcase is his single point obsession with the process of accountability of opposition leaders and sending them to jail.

Shahbaz Sharif, former chief minister of Punjab and president of PML-N is in jail in a case of money laundering. In a similar case, Asif Ali Zardari, former Pakistan president and co-chairman of Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), is out on bail. However, Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister and PML-N chief, who had been convicted, successfully managed to leave the country on medical grounds and is now safely ensconced in London.

Pushed to the corner, PML-N and PPP joined hands. Maulana Fazlur Rehman of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, who lost the last election, also joined the bandwagon. In the three well-attended public meetings held by Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) at Gujranwala, Karachi and Quetta on October 16, 18 and 25 respectively, the speakers lashed out at the army for sabotaging the democracy since independence and now supporting an incompetent regime.

Protests and rallies by opposition are not new in Pakistan. In the past, the army has used religious organisations with street power to unseat uncomfortable prime ministers. But this time it is just the opposite. Army leadership is getting a taste of its own medicine. Nawaz Sharif (from London) has been mainly targeting the army chief, his protege Asim Saleem Bajwa, chairman, China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority and Faiz Hameed, director general, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). He is particularly scathing in his attack against the DG, ISI.

In Karachi, Mohsin Dawar, member of National Assembly from Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, accused the army of targeted killings and other human rights violations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal areas. He demanded formation of a truth commission to go into the army’s political role since 1948 and its involvement in the US war on terror for dollars. Sardar Akhtar Mengal of Balochistan National Party raised the issue of “enforced disappearances” and dumped dead bodies of Baloch youth. He also criticised exploitation of resources of Balochistan jointly by Pakistan and China and made it clear that no one in the province was benefiting from CPEC.

What has angered the army is that a hugely embarrassing narrative against it by Pashtun and Baloch parties has been brought to the centre stage at PDM rallies and is being supported by national parties. Obviously, the army is on backfoot and is left with no option other than going the whole hog in supporting Imran Khan.

At the army’s behest, Pakistan Rangers picked up Sindh inspector general of police in the dead of the night (October 18/19) after the PDM rally in Karachi and was forced to arrest Capt (retd) Safdar, son-in-law of Nawaz Sharif. However, the army was unprepared for the fallout when top Karachi police hierarchy proceeded on leave. Tempers were calmed down only when the army chief assured PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto of inquiry into the matter.

Angry Imran Khan has also vowed to bring back Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan and treat him in jail like an ordinary criminal. But can he do so? It is unlikely that Nawaz Sharif fulminated against the army without an assurance that he would not be deported.

Who are then the international backers of Nawaz Sharif? He has excellent relations with Saudi Arabia, which is unhappy at Imran Khan getting too close to the Turkish president Erdogan and trying to undermine the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Even the US would not be looking kindly to the growing proximity between Pakistan and China. The perception is that the three-year extension to the army chief and appointment of Asim Bajwa as chairman of CPEC was with Beijing’s blessings.

The Pakistan army and Imran Khan are finding it difficult to negotiate the growing contradictions in the country’s foreign policy. That is the cause of domestic political heat. With the PDM remaining united and unwilling to blink first, tempers are unlikely to calm down anytime soon.

(The writer is a former Intelligence Bureau officer, who served in Pakistan)