Prime Minister Imran Khan faces the greatest challenge to his leadership from opposition parties who came together over the weekend to appoint fire cleric Maulana Fazalur Rehman to lead the newly created 11-party anti-government alliance seeking to overthrow him.
Rehman had the first round of his campaign against Imran Khan last year when he launched the ‘Azadi March’ from Karachi to the capital city of Islamabad against Pakistan’s government Tehreek-i-Insaf, or PTI. That effort had failed. This time, Khan’s orange-turban rival is counting on the support of other parties to keep up the street protests.
A 26-point resolution adopted by the coalition – they call it the Pakistan Democratic Movement – a fortnight ago seeks to force “the resignation of the selected prime minister and the end of the establishment’s role in politics.” He also wants to ensure the “end of establishment interference in politics,” a reference to the military.
The combined opposition attack on the mighty army is unusual in Pakistan; The military has ruled Pakistan for about half of its 73-year history and often had the final say in the country’s government for the other half. As Imran Khan’s critics say, he does it now.
That it was the army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, who convened the political parties to a secret meeting last month to build a consensus on how to convert Gilgit Baltistan in the occupied northern areas into Pakistan’s fifth province at the behest of China underscored the role the military was playing in politics.
“It is sad that the situation has escalated to the level where we now have state over state,” Nawaz Sharif said at the first opposition conference late last month, echoing his sentiment that Imran Khan was his representative. .
His daughter and vice president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Maryam Nawaz, who has been at the forefront of the party’s battles with the government in the absence of the three-time prime minister of Pakistan, has been among the loudest in demanding action against the retired lieutenant. General Asim Saleem Bajwa, Chairman of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Assistant to Prime Minister Khan on corruption charges.
Also Read: Imran Khan Faces Setback by Gilgit-Baltistan Movement. China ties his hands
Imran Khan, who came to power thanks to populist guarantees to root out corruption, faces accusations that his anti-corruption campaign only targets opposition leaders. In July this year, Pakistan’s high court also noted in a case that the anti-corruption watchdog seemed “reluctant to proceed against people on one side of the political divide.”
A Pakistani observer in New Delhi said it was not a surprise that the National Accountability Office arrested Pakistan’s opposition leader and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif shortly after the first opposition conference.
“Nawaz Sharif is not a hero, but he represents the very essence of democratic choice,” he said, emphasizing that the investigations targeting Nawaz Sharif and his family were important as he was the only leader who faced the army.
In the absence of her father, who is in exile in London, Maryam Sharif has bluntly targeted the military. She has called the Gen Bajwa meeting last month on Gilgit-Baltistan as an attempt by the military to tighten its grip on the country’s politics. “These decisions must be made in parliament, not in the GHQ (army headquarters),” he said.
A second Pakistani observer in Delhi said there was an assessment that Maryam Sharif’s strident tone against the army appeared to expose her to a “serious risk of physical harm”. She has not backed down in her harsh criticism of the army and Imran Khan despite the arrest of her uncle.
Street protests and mega rallies had been Imran Khan’s favorite tool for generating public opinion against the Nawaz Sharif government. Analysts say the opposition does not expect to be successful in the short term, but is building momentum to topple the Khan regime, much like the 2014 Azadi march he had led against Nawaz Sharif.
Khan faces other challenges as well, some of them much more immediate. Next month’s meeting of the Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, is one. The meeting, scheduled for October 21-23, is to decide on Imran Khan’s request to remove Pakistan from the “gray list” of the global watchdog.
An Indian counterterrorism official said Islamabad is likely to be disappointed given its spotty record of implementing counterterrorism laws. That would make it difficult for the Khan government to access international markets at a time when the country’s economy has been reeling.
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