Can Pakistan survive Imran Khan’s curse?
Photo credit Twitter PTI-Official
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, May 10: In 24-hour, angry supporters of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had set a heritage radio station in Peshawar aflame, while also rampaging the residence of the Corps commander, a property bought by the founder of the Islamic nation Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Supporters of Khan are running amok, and the security personnel seem to give them right of passage all across the country seemingly as part of the strategy to let the anger die own death.
Pakistan-based experts are converging on view that Khan’s conviction in one of the 150 odd corruption cases is just a matter of time. Pakistan Army is playing out of the old book, and there has certainly been no changes in the tricks employed since the ouster of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his subsequent sentencing to death.
“That a parliament finds it expedient to reject Supreme Court verdicts, a Chief Justice unwilling to pay heed to senior judges of the court, and a worsening economic meltdown are symptomatic of a deeper malaise that afflicts Pakistan state in general, and now the deep state as well…the current unravelling …is an intra-elite contest for spoils,” wrote Raza Rumi in The Friday Times, a leading Pakistani daily.
Provincial elections could not be held in Pakistan, while Pakistani military brass actively sought to dissuade the Supreme Court from setting dates for polls in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) most likely stay away from committing another $6.7 billion to keep the Pakistani economy afloat. Anticipating gloomy prospects, Pakistani rupee has gone into a free fall against the dollar.
The Pakistani intelligentsia is busy loud-thinking divide in the army top brass. The Pakistani daily Dawn quoted former Editor of Herald Badar Alam, saying that the action against Khan is another witch hunt by the anti-corruption agency of the country.
The lackeys of the army such as Fazlur Rehman, chief of JUI-F, has begun the chorus to throw Khan out of the country. In similar fashion, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was also exiled. But he made his entry back in the power equation through his brother Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, after former Amry chief Qamar Javed Bajwa decided to sack Khan.
The US is now wearied with Pakistan, while also being clear that Islamabad is now essentially a Chinese economic colony. China after pouring billions of dollars in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has stake in keeping the Islamic nation afloat. China also wants Pakistan on its side to mine lithium from Afghanistan to monopolise the electric vehicle manufacturing in the world.
China and Saudi Arabia may bail out Pakistan to preserve the status quo of the military and political elites partaking the spoils. But a fate like Sri Lanka after default on the foreign debt is also a possibility, which is more imminent than Beijing burning more cash with Islamabad. If a ‘Go Gotta Go’ campaign hits Pakistan against the military akas with hunger and hardship of the people fueling the anger, Asim Munir and his company may run out of the idea, for the Islamic nation has a large middle class, which may not survive hunger attack, as had been seen last year following spell of drought and super flood.
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