Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, having lost his carefully crafted majority in the national assembly and having reached the edge of a political precipice, had only two options as he faced the nation on Thursday night: either to call fresh elections or call it quits. Principal Opposition parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) led by the Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto families respectively, have made it clear Imran must quit – while Pakistan’s all-powerful military too is baying for his blood. Economy’s downslide was one reason for the public upheaval against Imran. Fact is, a stable government is next to impossible in Pakistan’s troubled post-Independence history. Lack of scruples has been a dominant character with both the politicians and the military there.
In a way, Imran Khan lacked full legitimacy as the last elections had not given him a majority. The majority was crafted at the instance of the military and he was being referred to as the “selected” – not elected – Prime Minister. Khan tried to do a job and got along well with the military brass for the first couple of years and then fell out with them. To keep pleasing the military was no easy job for any prime minister. The military always took the upper hand in matters of national security and foreign policy – which effectively meant the generals running a parallel administration. This was evident also in the way the White House held parallel consultations with the generals alongside the elected governments in relation to matters of mutual interest. The scenario meant successive prime ministers were often at the mercy of the military brass, undercutting the cause of democracy. With the Supreme Court too stepping in often for “course corrections,” a strong democratic rule for Pakistan is just impossible. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is in exile in London. Benazir Bhutto remained in exile for years in UAE and elsewhere, and returned home to fight and win polls, only to be assassinated within hours of her arrival.
Pakistan is also where army generals seized power and eventually hanged the elected prime minister – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979. Once out of power, what fate awaits Imran Khan is anybody’s guess. Khan’s relations with India had not been antagonistic; rather, he often spoke highly of India and its systems. He could not check the pro-Kashmiri terrorists’ offensives against this country also as these were masterminded by the Pakistani military brass itself. Yet, the IAF attack on Balakot terror camps left Khan – and the generals — squirming in their chairs. Imran Khan’s impassioned plea on TV will not move the military brass but he has spilt all for the world to hear.
