Islamabad: Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has said he will insist on civilian supremacy over Pakistan’s powerful military if his party comes to power and would rather resign if the army and the ISI did not function under him if he becomes Prime Minister.
Days after his Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party stunned its opponents by drawing a mammoth crowd during a rally in Lahore, Khan said that if he becomes the Prime Minister after the next election, he would press for civilian supremacy over the army and the Inter-Services Intelligence agency so that he could implement his agenda.
“Unless I can implement my agenda – which means I take responsibility for everything that’s happening in Pakistan, it means that the army is under me, it means the ISI can do nothing unless it reports to me, it means that the army’s budget is audited by a civilian set-up, it means I take responsibility for anything that’s happening outside my country, it means I take responsibility that no terrorism will take place from Pakistani soil – otherwise, I would resign,” he told Karan Thapar in an interview for CNN-IBN’s ‘Devil’s Advocate’ programme. 58-year-old Khan was responding to a question on whether he would challenge army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and the Corps Commanders and insist on civilian supremacy.
Asked specifically if he would be Gen Kayani’s boss if he became the premier, Khan replied: “100 per cent. I have never, ever been controlled by anyone.
(If) the people give me the mandate to be the Prime Minister and I’ll be someone’s puppet – people know me for 35 years. I’ve never been controlled by anyone.”
Khan is widely expected to get the support of certain segments such as youth and women disenchanted by widespread corruption and a perceived lack of governance under the Pakistan People’s Party-led government. The army has played a key role in shaping the government’s foreign and security policy, especially policies related to the US and India.
But Khan said all that would change under any government formed by his party. He noted that powerful leaders like Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah and PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had never brooked interference by the army.
“When Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was Prime Minister, he sacked the army chief and the air chief… When the great Jinnah was in charge, you could never imagine the army asserting itself.
We have non-leaders in Pakistan. These people are here to make money. They are not interested in governance,” he said in the interview to be aired tonight. The army was controlling the situation in Balochistan province, the tribal areas and the erstwhile Taliban stronghold of Swat with “no civilian input” while the country’s largest city of Karachi was controlled by the paramilitary Pakistan Rangers, Khan said. Asked about media reports that his party had the backing of the military and questioned about his lack of criticism of the military, Khan contended that he had never been controlled by anyone in his public life of 35 years. “Have I got a price? Can anyone buy me?” he asked. (PTI)