TeaThe white Suzuki van, notable only for its military license plates, pulled up outside Gate 2 of the army headquarters in Rawalpindi – the complex of buildings that houses not only the army chief but the country’s top nuclear-weapons official, including the Director General of Strategic Planning Division and Director General of Strategic Forces Command. Tehreek-e-Taliban jihadists took hostages from among the base staff and forced them to engage in a prolonged battle with the soldiers, in which many lives were lost. twelve soldiers,
earlier this week the gate of that citadel was violated againBut this time hundreds of supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) protested against the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan on corruption charges. The army – wisely – had pulled back its defenders, to avoid bloodshed that some feared might split their own ranks.
From inside the Lahore Corps Commander’s burning home came ceremonial cannons, boxes of frozen strawberries, and even the exquisite albino peacocks that grace his lawn: “These were bought with the people’s money,” One protester claimed“What was stolen from us has just been taken back.”
Imran may seem an unlikely symbol for the outburst of proletariat anger: after all, he is accused of helping himself expensive gifts as well as the land of the kingdom, and the farming fellows of whom one shines $100,000 handbag, However, the fact that for the first time in Pakistan’s history the crackdown against a political leader prompted an immediate mini-intifada against the military.
To understand what led to this dramatic confrontation—and what profound consequences it could have for the country—it is necessary to put Imran’s military’s unprecedented defiance in context.
old new medina
For all its iconic surrealism, Imran’s politics represents a long political legacy: the religious right established itself as a pole of political resistance to the elitism of the post-colonial state. objective resolution 1949, which committed Pakistan to the creation of a theocratic state, was the first victory of the Right. The Religious Right forced religious clauses into the 1956 constitution and forced military ruler General Ayub Khan to restore the words ‘Islamic Republic’ in the text of the new constitution.
there were a lot of people, the Scholar IA Rahman who believed that Pakistan was merely a vessel built to conquer India – a sentiment echoed on railway trains bringing government employees from New Delhi to Lahore.
Even the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) incorporated religion into its discourse on socialism and facilitated the takeover of the state’s powers to decide who should be considered a Muslim. Elements of the party also praised the military ruler, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, for creating religious courts with the power to usurp the functions of their civilian counterparts.
The reluctance of secular centrist parties to directly challenge Islamism has given the religious right far more influence than its demonstrated electoral success. Each wanted to recruit Islamism to its side, not seeing it as a threat to democracy.
Foreign allies are keeping a political eye on them Play out the process concerned. 1951, now an unclassified State Department document alert “Activities of reactionary groups of landowners and uneducated religious leaders (mullahs) who oppose the current Western-minded government.” These structures, it suggests, “favor a return to primitive Islamic principles.” There was a risk “that Pakistan could become a theocratic state with a distinctly anti-Western bias.”
Rohail Ahmed and Fatima Sajjad, Empowered by the Growth of Jihadism in Pakistan’s North-West written, the Lal Masjid movement sought to capture state power. This led to a confrontation between its Islamist sponsors and the Pakistani military – leading, among other things, to a brutal terrorist attack that claimed the life of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The New Medina Imran promised was thus an old, familiar idea: a religious order, in which the wealth would be used to build a socialist system centered on Islamic principles. To his followers, like Donald Trump, the personal failings of their leader seem a trivial issue.
Army chief General Syed Asim Munir has been cautious about crushing Imran, knowing he is at risk of a setback. The arrest, however, comes at a time when the army chief knows he has no choice.
a divided army
suffered for a long time ideological divide Regarding Imran in the army, General Munir clearly understands that there is a need to take careful steps against the former Prime Minister. The unsuccessful Battle of Zaman Park—which saw Imran supporters pitted against the police in March—saw the state retreat. General Munir’s decision not to use force to protect military installations is a bet that the leaderless opposition will fail with Imran in jail, but it is a high-stakes gamble.
This is because the military has long had a problem with jihadist influence within its ranks – support for which could throw its weight behind Imran. In 2011, Brigadier Ali Khan—with three generations of military service behind him—was arrested on charges of conspiring to incite insurgency. Khan and three other officers were convicted Membership of the jihadist organization Hizb-ul-Tahrir.
Rogue Navy Officer, as of late 2014 are suspicious To help al-Qaeda gain control of a Pakistani warship and use it to attack the United States fleet.
Lt. Gen. Shahid Aziz—a bitter critic of Gen. Pervez Musharraf and known for the failed Kargil offensive. joined al QaedaEventually dying in 2018. General Aziz’s writings, wrote scholar Hussain Haqqani, were filled with apocalyptic fantasies of a coming global war involving Satanists, Freemasons, and secret Jewish cabals.
Terrorist attack of 2009 itself, investigators found, was led by jihadist warlord Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri, who had once been a special forces officer. Two other men with military backgrounds participated in the attack, using their training to find a means of bypassing the compound’s security measures.
Groove diplomatic cable A recorded Pakistan Air Force Vice-Marshal Khalid Chaudhry complained that the organization was struggling to get enlisted men to trim their beards. Every week, Chaudhry told US officials in 2006, the PAF suffered low-level sabotage incidents aimed at ensuring that its fighter jets could not operate against terrorists in the country’s northwest.
Earlier in 1995 a conspiracy was led by Lieutenant-General Zaheer-ul-Islam Abbasi overthrow the government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and escalate the stalled jihad inside Kashmir into a full-scale war.
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a panic threat
Even if the military succeeds in pushing Imran off the political stage – using the more than a hundred criminal cases now against him to disqualify him from seeking office – it may not be the end of his problems. Is. The level of jihadist violence has been growing rapidly The Tehrik-i-Taliban successfully targeted troops in large areas of the northwest. The lack of political space may have at least some of Imran’s staunchest supporters turning to the gun.
There is a real risk that the troops may disobey orders if forced to engage in large-scale repression targeting the PTI. Lieutenant-General Assam Ghafoor, Lieutenant-General Sadiq Mehmood, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Sahir Samshad Mirza are among officers taking precautions as part of a demonstration.
Finally, the government’s inefficient management of the economy is rapidly undermining its wider legitimacy. experts have was warning The country could default on its foreign exchange commitments by June, throwing everyday life into chaos ahead of elections.
This dreadful dance, which began after the arrest of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, has broken the scaffolding of Pakistan, which has held Pakistani politics for generations. The end of the Crisis fireworks have certainly been terrifying.
The writer is National Security Editor with ThePrint. He tweeted @praveenswami. Thoughts are personal.
(Editing by Anurag Choubey)