Is This the End of the Road for Imran Khan?
By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada

 

Prime Minister Imran Khan gestures as he addresses party workers at the Governor House in Karachi on Wednesday — Picture courtesy PPI

 

The die is ostensibly cast, with the combined opposition to Imran Khan (IK) tabling a formal demand before the Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan to convene the House so they may move a vote of no-confidence against him.

The news of IK’s legion of opponents—foes and enemies, in the truest sense of the term—rattling their sabers against him is, of course, nothing new. Luminaries of the so-called ‘combined opposition’--men like the Sharifs, Asif Ali Zardari, Fazalur Rehman et al.—have been baying for his blood from the day he assumed Pakistan’s leadership as its Prime Minister. Their opposition to him is congenital. In a word, they are against him for the sake of opposition. It’s pure hatred of the man, for a good reason: he’s out to get them and nab them because to him, and to tens of millions of Pakistanis who subscribe to his agenda of cleansing Pakistan’s Augean Stables of corruption, they are merchants of corruption who must be brought to the book.

IK’s crusade against the corrupt is his reason for being in politics. In his long march to power—a work of nearly a quarter century—he never wavered from his determination to hold these czars of corruption in Pakistan accountable for what they have done to the country.

So, the battle lines between IK and merchants of corruption in politics had been drawn even before he ascended to the helm of Pakistan’s affairs. IK’s opponents were determined, from the word go, to not let him rule in peace. Ergo, it wasn’t surprising that his character assassination was kicked off with zest, and the flimsy slogan of ‘selected PM’ was coined to tarnish his image with the people of Pakistan.

However, the ‘combined opposition’ was a house deeply divided. The rivalry between the Sharifs and Zardari was the stuff of legends. They hated each other’s sight and each went on record, against the other. The archives of the Pakistani news media are replete with the Sharifs and Zardari threatening to hang each other after ferreting out the looted money of Pakistan, stashed abroad in safe havens.

Understandably, it took them a long time to bridge their differences, if not genuinely from heart than for the sake of bonding on a platform to fight their common ‘enemy.’ Sheer self-interest goaded them to sink their differences and coalesce to save their skins from IK’s outreach. For them it was a question of survival.

The dubious platform of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) is an ersatz, motley, grouping of corrupt and out-of-power political factions that feel threatened against IK’s mission to rid the Pakistani landscape of their nihilistic politics. IK is challenging their survival and their lust for power and pelf, the two crutches of these traditional and dynastic politicians.

PDM bided its time until it became suddenly active last February 11 when it announced its decision to table a no-confidence move against their nemesis. Their sense said the time had come to bare their knuckles and draw the swords that had long been sheathed.

There was more than one catalyst galvanizing IK’s foes into action. The first catalyst to get off the perch and jump to the feet was the sense that the vaulted ‘establishment’ had decided to be a non-party to politics and governance. Public assertion by spokesman for the establishment may have led to this conclusion, which could be a mis-perception. But it was soothing to the frayed nerves of IK’s enemies who had routinely lambasted him for being a ‘selected’ and not elected PM. The word gained momentum that the ‘umpire’ had decided to be neutral and take no sides.

But the second catalyst may have been stronger to jog IK’s rivals into quick action. To PDM and every pundit keeping a vigil over IK and his governance, the fault-lines within the ruling PTI became all too obvious and jarring.

There have been murmurs of discontent within the party ranks of PTI for long. It all began with the unceremonious ouster of Jehangir Tareen—one of the founding elders of the party—from IK’s inner circle.

Pakistani politics has long been a bastion for those hoping to use their political foothold to promote their business interests. Tareen was no exception to the rule. But mixing business with governance is anathema to IK. Hence the reason for Tareen’s banishment. But typical to another proven trait of Pakistani politics, Tareen lost no time in raising the standard of revolt. True to familiar script, he soon gathered a clutch of like-minded party men around him.

Tareen has followed the time-tested formula of disgruntled Pakistani politicians by winging his way to London—the fancied refuge of Pakistani scoundrels—for ‘medical treatment.’ PDM’s get-Imran campaign became electrified from Tareen’s London yatra. He’s there, as even a layman knows, for medical treatment but to confab with another famous ‘sick man’ of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, who has long been absconding there on a similar excuse. Sharif’s henchmen and cohorts had been making a beeline to Tareen to woo him and win him and his group over to their side.

But mutiny on board the PTI’s wobbly ship has been becoming truly manifest with Aleem Khan—from the stable of tycoon-politicians, a la Tareen—making a public show of his discontent with the party leadership.

Aleem Khan, too, has been smarting from humiliation meted out to him when he was ousted from Punjab cabinet and literally thrown under the bus. NAB and other agencies dealt with him roughly. He has been carrying a chip on his shoulder against IK and has struck with iron being hot against his leader.

These two disgruntled factions, of Tareen and Aleem, have rallied many other party loyalists around their pole.

These PTI mutineers have a common demand. They want the head of Usman Buzdar on a pike. But IK, to date, is reluctant to feed the lack-luster Buzdar to the wolves.

Buzdar has long been in the cross hairs of many within PTI’s ranks. But why IK is standing so firmly behind Buzdar is baffling to many. It may cost him heavily, in the end, to not let go of Buzdar. But for the moment he is not prepared to concede this demand to get rid of a dead-weight Buzdar.

It all boils down to a numbers game. The men around IK, as he himself, too, are confident that the jackals of PDM would fail in their bid to oust him via their no-confidence move against him. But in the process, PTI’s political allies—MQM and PML(Q) of Gujrat’s Chaudhry Brothers, Pervaiz and Shujaat—have suddenly discovered that they may be small in numbers but are worth their weight in gold to IK in this nerve-rattling numbers game.

But to most political pundits, the elephant in the room of PDM’s suddenly-galvanized campaign to get rid of IK is the role of ‘foreign elements’ in Pakistani politics.

Suspicion over foreign hands has been gathering moss as PPP-led ‘long-march-on-trucks-and-trailers' moves closer to the sanctum of power in Islamabad. IK, himself, talked of sponsors of PDM in his public address at Vohari, outside Lahore, a few days ago.

Foreign interference in Pakistan’s domestic politics and governance has a history.

It goes back to the East India Company purchasing local loyalties in its imperialist thrust into India. The standard of revolt against the imperialist power was crushed, time and again, with the help of Mir Jafars and Mir Sadiqs. The progenies of these notorious Quislings have proliferated and persevered in Pakistani politics, ever since they conspired to assassinate the first PM of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan.

IK hasn’t endeared himself with those who had taken their role as dictators of Pakistan’s foreign policy for granted. It’s no coincidence that the no-confidence move against IK got into over-drive after IK’s journey to Moscow. It was a case of bad timing—over which he had no control—that IK happened to be Putin’s guest in Moscow as the military campaign against Ukraine was launched.

So, IK has a daunting fight on his hands. His body language speaks volumes of his confidence to come out of it triumphant. The odds are truly daunting and stiffly challenging. But he’s a fighter by instinct; and like any seasoned and tough fighter when the odds are against him, he, the toughie, gets going.

There’s a lot riding on this nerve-rattling contest between IK and his political nemeses. It’s not only IK’s political future at stake but also the future of Pakistan’s independence in foreign policy. If his rivals prevailed, Pakistan would go back to its traditional role of a stooge and puppet. - K_K_ghori@hotmail.com

(The writer is a former ambassador and career diplomat)