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PKLEAKS 45.0: Has Pak Deep State Lost the Plot to Imran Khan?

Published on Nov 01, 2022 | 12:09 PKT
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The chants of “Arshad tere khoon se inquilab aayega” rent the skies in Pakistan when Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif’s dead body was laid to rest in Islamabad after being flown in from Kenya where he had mysteriously fallen prey to Kenyan police’ stray bullets in an alleged act of mistaken identity.

Skeletons will tumble out of the cupboard in due course, no brownie points for guessing it right. Notably, in early 2022, a British-Pakistani in London was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to kill a Pakistani blogger based in Rotterdam allegedly at the behest of the ISI. But the ugly episode has undeniably brought Pakistani establishment to its knees by giving a trump card to Imran Khan, who is in a confrontational mode with the former since his ouster from power. This is evident from the fact that no less than DG ISI, in a first, had to emerge from the shadows and attend a historic presser to clear the air on controversies, re polish the fading image of Pakistan’s mailed first and put the onus back on Imran Khan for the entire chaos. Arguably, Pakistani establishment’s move to oust from power its own pick Imran Khan has backfired as Khan’s relentlessly vicious firestorm aimed at Deep State or rather ‘neutrals’(a term coined by Khan with sarcastic undertones) has made deep cuts in its righteous and ultra clean image in the eyes of the masses.

An analysis of Khan’s strategic & tactical moves since his loss of power and in contrast, ill-conceived countermoves of ‘neutrals’ to blunt them will help examine how super clean guys have ceded much ground to their own former protégé, and are now wary of losing trust of Pakistani common people.

For starters, the establishment did not factor in Khan’s acumen to magnify the issue of the US conspiracy cypher to the extent that it would appeal straight to the anti US large middle class section of Pakistan’s populace. This segment has always been skeptical of the US over its past skullduggeries and will never endorse it undue interventions in Pakistan, not least in regime change. Rather than countering the same through logical and judicial means, the establishment, for its new planted regime, chose to hush up the issue by means of imposing gag orders on media and strangulating rational voices. Not just this, when it found pro Imran journalists short on compliance, it used its old time ways to twist arm them into course correction. One may recall how pro PTI Imran Riaz Khan, the news anchor with Express News, was infamously whisked away when he was on his way to Islamabad to get bail orders from Islamabad High Court and put in grinding custody till scores were evened. More or less similar destiny awaited Sami Ibrahim (BoI TV) and Ammad Yousaf (ARY), simply because they raised their pitch on the cypher conspiracy, Be that as it may be, no one would have foreseen that journalists loyal to Imran Khan would even be bumped off overseas, With the jaw dropping murder of Arshad Sharif, the Rubicon has been brazenly crossed. Unfortunately, the revenge spree did not end here as one more ARY journalist Ghulam Hussain was to land in the dragnet not long after above mentioned historic presser, again in stark retaliation for his vocalism on the Cypher issue. All of this has sent a message, loud and clear, to us in Pakistan than there is a grain of truth to the Cypher claims.

Second, the establishment has shown no inhibition to test similar means to silence PTI leadership. Memories of custodial torture of Shehbaz Gill are hard to erase. Furthermore, the recent naming of two intelligence officials by Azam Swati (PTI member of Pak Senate) who he said had harassed him in custody bear witness to the quantum of spite that the establishment has for unyielding PTI vocalists. Their guilt was just that they had questioned the neutrality of self-styled ‘neutrals’ and their perceived role in the acquittal of present PML-N leaders in corruption cases. Recent electoral disqualification of Imran Khan in the much touted state repository case is no less than a theater of the absurd. More so, when our own serving and retired army generals and feudal lords in Pakistan have large deep pockets without a trace a accountability. This is however not to defend Imran Khan over corruption but we in Pakistan are now politically much more suave to see through such Shenanigans.

Third, as against the establishment’s hope, Imran Khan’s graph of popularity is on the rise. An almost clean sweep of by- elections since his ouster (latest being his triumph in Kurram) and surging crowds in his street marches is evidence that Imran is a huge threat to PDM in upcoming general elections of Pakistan. His latest long march from Lahore to Islamabad is another tale of burgeoning public support to him. Khan knows this full well & draws sustenance form this to take neutrals head on in his street addresses. Challenges are so intimidating that Pak czar (COAS) Qamar Javed Bajwa has had to reaffirm twice that he will hang his boots at the end of November and vowed that the establishment will no longer meddle in politics. This is all to deep clean the image of the deep state, which is now biting the bullet after its botched- up entanglements with Khan.

Fourth, the establishment is, in equal measure, under pressure to give a leg up to PDM regime so that it holds its ground against the PTI behemoth. And surprisingly the US is an active party to this exercise. The delivery of F 16 sustainment package, the removal of Pakistan from FATF Grey list , the release of IMF and other global lenders’ aid, the US Envoy in Pak calling Pak administered Kashmir “Azad Kashmir”- all these steps are also an exercise in propping up PDM against Imran Khan. How effectively this recipe will work needs to be seen.

Conclusively, it can be said the Imran Khan versus military war has no end in sight. One thing though is certain that the war is titled in favor of Khan, at least till now, thanks to the establishment’s impatient, egoistic, myopic and ill chartered tactical trajectory. Also, the presser is most likely to be a damp squib as strategic commentaries defines it to be a well-choreographed political exercise targeted at no other than Imran Khan,. The octopus like deep state of Pakistan is entangled in its own limbs. We are back to question if the glorious days of Pak establishment are over or the crisis will end with shady deals between them. Will the establishment be able to outsmart Imran Khan or Imran Khan will clean bowl the former? The answer should lie in the hands of people of Pakistan. Let us wait!



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