News Analysis: Khan squarely made it IK vs the Establishment

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has now squarely focused his attack on the country’s military establishment.

The gloves are off. Unlike before, now he has started taking the names of the establishment players. He directly blames them for many wrongs and even shouts at them in public meetings. He has now precisely made it Imran Khan vs the military establishment.

His chargesheet against the top military leadership is growing with every passing day. He alleges them of having installed the Shehbaz Sharif government and accuses them of siding with the corrupt and going against the will of the people. He blames them for harassing journalists, and even went on point finger at them in the case of Arshad Sharif murder. Imran Khan charges the military establishment with alleged custodial torture and unclothing of Azam Swati and Shehbaz Gill. None of his public speeches or TV interviews go without the military establishment’s bashing. Interestingly, while doing all this, he seeks from the same establishment early elections and removal of the present government.

No one even within the PTI knows where Khan will stop? What would be the limits of his attack on the military establishment. On Monday, while addressing his long march, he said that the establishment has sided with the corrupt while the people of Pakistan are with him. He warned the institution that the people will stand in opposition against them if they sided with the present ruling coalition. He said that anyone supporting the present government will face the opposition of the masses.

In a tweet, the same day, he warned, “The sea of people is along our March on the GT Road. For 6 months I have been witnessing a revolution taking over the country. Only question is will it be a soft one through the ballot box or a destructive one through bloodshed?”

Ironically he does not understand how seriously he is damaging the institutions and how a bloody “revolution” will benefit him. He thinks that through these pressure tactics he would compel the military establishment to get him early elections and remove the present government, but in the process he is injecting hatred against the institutions among his followers.

At times he talks about how critically important the army is for the security, defence and sovereignty of Pakistan. However, what he is saying in public speeches is like poisoning the minds of people against their own army. Imran Khan has already infused extreme hatred in politics. Whether it’s intentional or not, now he is doing the same against the institutions. Background interaction with senior leaders of the PTI finds them clueless about what Imran really wants to achieve from all this. Imran does not show his cards even to his closest aides in the party. Some of his party leaders agree that insulting the institution in public causes hatred.

Imran is really popular. He and his party are winning most of the by-elections. His party leaders understand that it is in the interest of Imran and the PTI to engage with the government and not to have bad relations with the military establishment. Even the PTI does not see early elections before March 2023. Negotiations could get them elections in June 2023 but Imran Khan’s bashing of the military establishment has caused such a serious mistrust which can’t be reversed even with the change of the present establishment.