Imran’s criticism of army Indian media’s favourite topic

KARACHI: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s criticism of the army has become the most favourite topic of debate in the Indian media.

The media is also highlighting his statement about the fall of Dhaka and predicting that Pakistan will disintegrate once again after 1971. “Imran has accepted that the army launched operationagainst a party which had swept polls in East Pakistan,” a media outlet said. It provided India with a “justification” that it was not involved in the creation of Bangladesh.

Indian vloggers used his statement for the benefit of India, while Pakistani social media users said it was against the facts. They said Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had won 160 seats in East Pakistan through terrorism and murders and they had no legal value.

An India Today programme said Imran Khan had been created by the army and he was bent upon harming it. “It has never happened in Pakistan’s history; one citizen is challenging the army. However, the army is not afraid of him,” it added.

The Observory Research Foundation, an Indian think tank, said many analysts believed Imran Khan was being supported by a powerful person in the system.

The Foreign Policy magazine says the former prime minister has turned against the force which once supported him. “Many analysts in Pakistan and outside believe that Imran is getting the backing of someone very powerful in the Pakistani system. Without such support, this kind of defiance is inconceivable.

But who can be more powerful than the sitting Army Chief and the top generals, including the ISI chief, all of whom are now visibly opposed to Imran? That Imran suffers from megalomania — he draws parallels between his struggle and that of Islamic icons — and is supremely confident that he enjoys massive public support could be propelling him to take on the military establishment. It is also possible that Imran feels he has run out of options and unless he takes on the military head-on and wins, he will be history,” it observed.