Pakistan: Can Imran’s Stormtroopers Force The Military Out Of Politics? Will The Crisis Strengthen Democracy?

Pakistan is burning. For the first time in Pakistan’s history, people are out in the streets and venting their anger against the country’s powerful military. The anger and violence were triggered by the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday afternoon. Mobs entered the Pakistan army headquarters and the home of a serving Corps Commander was reportedly attacked by Khan’s supporters. This kind of upsurge against the army has never happened before though several democratically elected leaders were ousted by the generals.

Is today’s street anger a glimpse of things to come? Have the supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf set a precedent and told the army that it cannot forever continue to direct political outcomes in the country? The jury is still out on this one. It could also turn out the other way. There could be a military coup with the army generals saying that Pakistan already facing an economic meltdown cannot afford political turmoil at the moment and we are reluctantly stepping in to save the country. But going by what little we know of the new Army Chief Asim Munir, that may not happen. Considering the economic mess that Pakistan is in, the army would not like to step in and further ruin its reputation. It is much easier to pull the strings from behind an elected government. Munir’s predecessor General Bajwa had said that the army would remain neutral and stay away from politics.  

With Pakistan facing multiple problems at the moment staying out would not be easy for an army often regarded in the past as the only institution that works in the country. Imran Khan’s arrest was ordered because the generals have had enough of the PTI leader’s constant bad-mouthing of the military leadership. He had publicly taken on the army and hammered their reputation. The problem in Pakistan is that all political leaders are willing to play footsie with the army when it suits them.

After the attempt on his life, Imran Khan had given broad hints that the ISI, Pakistan’s powerful spy agency was behind the assassination bid. Everyone in Pakistan knew who he was referring to when he spoke of "Dirty Harry’" but now it is all out in the open. He is speaking of Director General Counter Intelligence ISI Major General Faisal Naseer. Imran named him in a video message posted on Tuesday.

The army could no longer stand by and allow Imran Khan to continue his tirade against them and decided to keep his mouth shut by arresting the former prime minister while he was in the Islamabad High Court in connection with another case. The country had witnessed the entire farce of trying to arrest Khan and stepping back at the orders of the judiciary and the threat to law and order by his supporters.  Much of the judiciary is with Khan. But now with the army showing its hand, it will not be long before the judiciary falls in line. They had done it in other cases too.

Imran Khan’s arrest is related to the Al-Qadir case. The allegation is that Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi received a hefty kickback from a real estate company for legalizing Rs 50 billion that was returned to Pakistan by the UK when Khan was Prime Minister. By all accounts the legal case against Imran Khan and his wife are pretty strong. However, so long as he was in the good books of the army, no one took note of it. It has been resurrected now because it suits the army.

As is well known, this is not the first time that a leading political figure has been arrested. From the Pakistan Peoples Party’s  Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, his daughter  Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari, to Nawaz Sharif, his brother Shehbaz Sharif and his son were all implicated at various times, whenever they proved inconvenient for the army, who call the shots in Pakistan. Imran Khan was the blue-eyed boy of the generals. He won the 2018 elections mainly because former army general Qamar Javed Bajwa and ISI chief Faiz Hamid ensured he won the election and helped him right through the first few years to maintain a hold on his coalition partners. Imran was all praise for the army at that time, it is only when General Bajwa and he fell out and he lost a confidence vote in Parliament that Imran Khan turned against the establishment.

Imran Khan is a hero to most Pakistanis thanks to his cricketing genius. He was able to transfer much of that hero worship to a solid support base for his party. Most of his stormtroopers, who are creating mayhem across towns and cities of Pakistan are mostly young and are ready to die for their leader. This kind of frenzied support possibly egged on Imran Khan to take on the army and think that street power can frighten the army into submission.   

If the current crisis helps the political parties to break the strangle-hold of the army, Imran Khan would have done the greatest service to his country.