PM Imran Khan who was thought to play his innings sensibly after his humiliating defeat on the issuance of DG ISI appointment notification seems to be in haste to provoke both the already suffering masses and military establishment of the country. Analysts were of the view that the manner episode of Tehreek-e-Labaik- Pakistan matter was mishandled by PTI incumbent government’s cabinet ministers immature and aggressive statements and rigid stance of PM Imran Khan over TLP’s demands and then settled by the involvement of military establishment, the government will now somehow show resilience and restraint to control and manage crisis upon crisis in the country.
Army Chief COAS Qamar Javed Bajwa made sincere efforts to resolve the lingering and bloody crisis between the government (who had firmly refused to hold any dialogues with the TLP organization and declared it “anti-state and RAW funded militant wing) and leadership of TLP. Mediation by the military was inevitable with regard to the TLP trust deficiency towards government as it had miserably failed in the past to live up to signed agreements to take up the matter of expulsion of the French ambassador over blasphemy to the parliament, thus timely intervention of COAS Qamar Javed Bajwa saved the day and all the religious scholars lavished praises for selfless Army Chief’s far-sightedness endeavors to bring an end to the two-week long impasse.
The credibility of PM Imran Khan has hit the bottom regarding his capability and competency to run the affairs of the government. All the opposition parties contrary to 2018 opposition of PTI refrained itself from TLP street show for the acceptance of its demands which prevented PM Imran Khan government’s system to get derailed, though this was the golden most opportunity for the sitting opposition of the country to further exploit the situation to send PTI government packing as the entire nation has completely gone fed-up with PTI incumbent regime due to highest inflation and deteriorating state of the economy , yet it played its cards very wisely to save country from further bloodshed. Incompetent Imran Khan Government had politicized and hushed up the serious crisis for score pointing against the opposition by not referring the matter to the parliament. The TLP crisis was for damn serious due to the casualties and wounding of many policemen on duty. Era of Imran Khan revolves around his enormous ego in which he forgets that not every occasion is for playing politics. Under democratic dispensation, governments are required to collaborate with opposition parties, particularly on matters of national security. There are innumerous precedents when the ruling party and the opposition have taken a mutual stance on certain national issues. Ever since its inception, the PM Imran Khan government has treated all opposition parties in a despicable manner, never taking them on board on any issue. The stature of premiership under democratic spirit demands the recognition and acceptance of the existence & role of other political parties and opposition in a very dignified and calm manner and after “International transparency report and leakage of Pandora Papers” of 2020-21 which reveals the corruption of PM Imran Khan’s cabinet ministers and PTI members now, no political party or leader can claim to be a sacred cow. The intervention of the inner state in each and every matter due to the incompetency of PM Imran Khan also proves detrimental to the capacity-building & standing of political leaders.
PM Imran Khan under such uncertain and chaotic situation could have won masses sympathy and support if he had given some relief and subsidy to them to mitigate tsunami of world record price hike in Pakistan but he again delivered rather provocative speech and prices of all the basic commodities, energy & power and petroleum increased in all the utility stores, the same evening PM Imran Khan had delivered his much hyped “historic relief package” speech. PM intimated masses about the gas crisis within a few days in the country as well as the government’s intentions to further raise the price of petroleum which was hiked by RS.8.03 on the following night PM Imran Khan announced his “relief package”. The devalued rupee, increase in dollar and rising energy and petroleum prices shows government lack of empathy towards poor masses which has led to economic crisis, unemployment, hunger and below line poverty and even section of middle class are failed to maintain their standard of living and committing suicide as they could not make their both ends meet under U-turn policies of PM Imran Khan government who is playing havoc and mock with poor segment of Pakistan contrary to his 126 days sit-in promises, tall claims and elections manifesto. The ruling PTI cabinet ministers and PM initially declared previous governments for inflation in the country, afterwards it held “mafias” responsible for the rising cost in the country and now PM Imran Khan and his cabinet members claims that “inflation” does not exist at all in the country though economy has dropped down from 5.86 GDP to negative -0.26 GDP which has never occurred in the history of Pakistan and Pakistan faced economic crisis since the day PTI took the reins of the rule even before the covid-19 pandemic struck the country . The PM Imran Khan government has broken all the previous records of taking foreign loans and debts of 7,509 billion dollars by mortgaging country’s assets like motorways, national parks and airports though PM Imran Khan every changing finance ministers are levying record breaking taxes on the businesses, income and properties and belongings of all the Pakistanis.
PM Imran Khan’s government strategy to throw all the mess on previous governments and blame game policy to either hold mafias or PML-N and PPP past regimes responsible is no more lucrative and attractive for the people of Pakistan. If any crisis gets worsened simply due to the present regime’s incompetency and incapability they begin foil attempts via blame game policy to exonerate themselves from the failures to run the affairs of the government smoothly. The strategy of blame game by PM Imran Khan holding the previous regime responsible for every mess worked well during the first year of PTI rule as people were buying this argument but now this narrative of the PTI government is just a desperate attempt to distract masses attention from its failures and core issues.
Even ordinary person now raise question that why PM Imran Khan could not perform and delivered during his three and half years tenure thought for the first time in the history of Pakistan the military establishment and political government were on same page, the government of PTI was enjoying the immense support of all the institutions including Military establishment, courts, media, election commission and even opposition were managed to compromise with the incumbent PM Imran.
PM Imran Khan was given full space and ground to play his innings smoothly but he performed so pathetically, ruining and devastating even the basic infrastructure of Pakistan and brought the country’s economy on the brink of complete disaster and collapse. Looking at the worst performance of PM Imran Khan’s government when the military establishment decided to pull out its support the prime minister even decided to drag the Army into the mire and took the military establishment head on over the appointment of DG ISI. The political drama was pathetically played by him to gain the status of political martyrdom as a last resort but the military establishment manifested great resilience to manage the crisis created by PM Imran Khan to provoke the Army to impose emergency or martial law in the country. PM Imran Khan rushed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to extend his support over the appointment of DG ISI issue but Saudi Arab explicitly conveyed the message that the kingdom is bound to interact on “state” level with Pakistan and it has nothing to do with any political regimes of Pakistan. USA has already shown cold shoulder towards PM Imran Khan as President Joe Biden avoid engaging with him and during the crisis of DG ISI notification matter US Charge d’affaires Angela Aggeler met PML N leaders Maryum Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif and PPP leadership which was clear message to PM Imran Khan to mend his ways instead of indulging in any political adventurism to continue tussle with Army. PM Imran Khan gave a call to China’s President Xi jinping to seek his support but China has a clear policy of interfering into the internal matters of any country. As a last attempt PM Imran Khan even dialed British throne prince Charles but he couldn’t get anything thus at last he ratified the notification of DG ISI.
PM Imran Khan is not at all happy and tension is brimming over the developments on the DG ISI matter and agreement with TLP as he had to face worldwide embarrassment on both the issues. It has created unbridgeable cleavage between PM Imran and military and it is learnt by the reliable sources that PM Imran Khan is in a mood to oust COAS Qamar Javed Bajwa under his constitutional right as a last attempt to save his power. The growing rift will indeed dig in Imran Khan’s own heels. PM Imran Khan conspicuously avoided the National Security meeting by COAS and DG ISI in the parliament yesterday. It seems Imran Khan Days as Prime Minister in Pakistan are numbered and the month of November is very crucial. There is a likely outcome of the general election in March 2022 and even PM Imran Khan’s own ministers and associates are about to ditch him soon . Even opposition alliance PDM has decided to join hands with PPP and ANP who parted ways after Senate 2021 elections. The agreement with TLP and appointment of the intelligence chief has proved to be the last nail in the coffin of the power of PM Imran Khan who just acts childish and brainless when matters of national consensus arise. PM Imran Khan has faced double defeat and political situation of the country has entered an interesting phase and PM Imran Khan should play his cards wisely else his name will be found nowhere in the political arena of the country as the entire population of the country has turned against him over his U-Turns and inability to control and arrest the tsunami of inflation which has affected the poor masses of the country.