Imran at the exit gate

Brij Nath Betab
The cartoon said it all. Published in a leading national daily of Pakistan, the piece of art showed Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan being ‘enticed by American President Donald trump with a dangling carrot’. The cartoon depicted Trump and his Indian friend Prime Minister Narendra Modi sitting in a cart being pulled by Pakistani Prime Minister as a rickshaw puller. The cartoon was put out before the cricketer turned politician had to speak at the United Nations General assembly.
How badly the inexperienced head of PTI government fared there was demonstrated by the ungraceful removal of Maleeha Lodhi, the country’s envoy to the United Nations and replacing him by ‘an ISI buddy’. This diplomatic move in no way managed the damage that Imran Khan’s over stretched rant at the UNGA caused to both Khan and his country but it satisfied the ego of Prime Minister’s overzealous advisors. It is very apparent that his mentor the Pakistani army is his counselor and who does not know that army has been handling him like a puppet.
Daily violations at LOC and international border with India and threatening the world community with ‘imminent military escalation’ (Read nuclear catastrophe) are nothing but Pakistan Army’s game plan. This tactics has been working well for both Army and Imran. For Imran this helps in diverting poor Pakistani’s attention from his failures and for army it ascertains their supremacy.
With no regard to Pakistan military’s history of dethroning civilian governments, Khan has made himself too much dependant on the army, particularly its chief. In Pakistan today the army chief is the de facto ruler. It is he who decides the economic and political affairs. Army chief accompanying him during world visits and independently meeting business leaders (Three meeting are reported) is indication of nothing beyond this. Observers are terming this as a “Soft Coup”.
After his harangue of a nuclear catastrophe, a report in a journal titled Science Advance, being published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science’ said that a (Nuclear) war between India and Pakistan could double the normal death rate in the world. The report approximated that up to thirteen crore people could perish within a week of the ignition and the recovery from the catastrophe would take ten years.
It is statements like these that make Pakistan a rogue state and Imran khan a war monger. This has mad Khan a subject of ridicule in the eyes of the world polity. The question is why Imran Khan is doing so. The answer is that he is frustrated. And he is frustrated as he is heading a failed state. Pakistan has become a failed state as it has not set its priorities right. Right from its birth the country has harped on grabbing the land of Kashmir. Having lost in conventional war several times, the army resorted to terrorist tactics. Terrorism has made it an enemy of the world, specifically of its neighbors like India, Afghanistan and to some extent Bangladesh. These are the countries that could have and would have helped Pakistan in achieving economic progress and political stability would have followed. Pakistan chose the other way round as its army is convinced that a strong and stable political system would mean a second fiddle role for them. It is here that they keep every politician under their thumb. Imran Khan is no exception to this. It is on Army’s dictates that he put his political adversaries in jails. Accountability commission was arm- twisted for this purpose. It seems that in Pakistan arm twisting of democratic institutions has got institutionalized. Army does it to ruling Party, ruling party does it to opposition parties. Judiciary does it to bureaucracy and bureaucracy does it to business. This has resulted in a fragile political system, weak economy and strong army. With India bidding farewell to Art 370 Imran and his handler Qamar Javed Bajwa, both have lost face. So what was the way out? The way out in their view was to rake up and rerun Kashmir and continue with rhetoric of a nuclear threat. Shrewd army used Imran to achieve this and he failed to realize the folly. General Bajwa kept himself away from this rhetoric, knowing well that the world opinion would go against Imran. So he achieved his objective of making him an object of ridicule so that whenever he is dethroned, the world does not shed tears for a civilian government. Imran’s mind has so skillfully been cast by bosses at Rawalpindi based General Headquarters that he, by his own follies, has opened the doors of his own doom and reached at the exit gate of his official residence. Everyone in Pakistan is fed up with his failures. And his removal would make them cheer. The army is gradually pushing this inexperienced politician to the wall and they shall tolerate him only as long as Trump keeps the carrot dangling. It is only a matter of time when General Bajwa, who during his recent visit to China indicated a “bigger role for himself” decides to open the door. His appointment to the high powered development council is considered as a move in that direction and his meeting with the business community in Rawalpindi is an indication of the coming events at Pakistan’s political turf.
Imran Khan today has no friends, no supporters. Apart from being his own enemy he in fact has an enemy within and an enemy outside’. As explained above his enemy within is Pakistan Army. His ‘enemy outside’ is the unity of opposition parties. Maulana Fazal-ur -Rehman’s ‘Azadi march’ has demonstrated that unity. And JUI-F chief declaring a ‘war’ against the Government says that constitution, democracy and Pakistan have to be protected as Imran Khan Government has put the ‘survival of Pakistan at risk’.
No one is happy with Imran’s handling of affairs of Pakistan. His foreign policy has failed. His economic policy has failed. His so called Kashmir strategy has failed. Former foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has openly challenged Imran and asked him to accept the truth (With regard to Kashmir) that no country stands with Pakistan and Pakistan has lost the game. Pakistan People’s Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto recently taunted him by saying that ‘Forget Srinagar, save Muzaffarabad’. Party’s Secretary General Nafisa Shah called him ‘Advocate of terrorists’ and described him as “Taliban Khan without beard”.
Having failed on all fronts and being cornered from all sides, Imran Khan had the last ‘life line’, China. He had recently gone there to ‘discuss Kashmir and economy’, but events after Xi Jinping’s visit to India indicate that China may not be so forthcoming. PTI chief may assert that China is a friend” and in the words of Khawaja Asif ‘he may befool Pakistani’s, but the fact remains that China will allow him to occupy the “Hot Seat” only as long as his answers to their questions of need and greed are correct .So on ground Pakistani Prime Minister has been left high and dry, to fend for himself. Pakistan under Imran Khan is in a mess. The so called ‘March to Loc’ too has boomeranged and voices for separation from Pakistan have already become louder in POK. Thus Imran is destined to fail further and Pakistan Army establishment knows this fully well. It is here that they are preparing for opening the exit gate for him. Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Qamar Bajwa, both are waiting in the wings. It is only a matter of time that the world will come to know as to who will occupy the Hot Seat in Pakistan and who is going to give company to Nawaz Sharief.
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