Imran Khan Pushes Pakistan to the Edge: WSJ

[FOOLS_NIGHTMARE]

Is Imran Khan Pakistan’s savior or its destroyer? His legion of passionate supporters hopes his continuing confrontation with the country’s army will allow him to return to power — Parliament ousted Mr Khan in April — and cleanse Pakistan of corruption and misrule.

More likely, the 70-year-old former cricketer’s vainglory and taste for brinkmanship could tip an already turbulent nation into chaos. Either way, the US and its allies should brace for instability in the nuclear-armed Islamic Republic, says a write-up in US newspaper Wall Street Journal.

The latest flashpoint came last week after a failed assassination bid interrupted a protest march by Mr Khan and his supporters to pressure the government to call early elections, which aren’t due for about a year. The shooting killed one person and wounded Mr Khan in the leg. Authorities say they quickly arrested the would-be assassin, a religious zealot. In a confession video leaked on social media, he accused Mr Khan of seeking to rival the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Mr Khan isn’t buying this explanation. He blames the attack on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Faisal Naseer, a major general in the army’s Inter-Services Intelligence. Messrs. Sharif and Sanaullah have denied Mr Khan’s charges, as has the army.

In a statement, the army called his accusation “baseless and irresponsible” and suggested Mr Khan was threatening “the honour, safety and prestige of its rank and file.”

Mr Khan’s public tirade against a senior officer “suggests a vendetta and signifies a major breach in civil-military relations,” says Aqil Shah, a Pakistan expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. This is all the more remarkable given both Mr Khan’s longstanding friendliness with Pakistan’s army and the central role it plays in the country’s government.

In the 75 years since independence, generals have directly ruled Pakistan for about 33 years. For much of the rest, the army chief has been the power behind the throne. As the old axiom goes, Pakistan isn’t a state with an army but an army with a state. Now that is threatened by a politician who used to be viewed as the army’s puppet.

Angered by the shooting, Mr Khan’s supporters have blocked traffic and clashed with police in Lahore and Rawalpindi. In Peshawar an angry mob gathered outside the fortified home of the general in charge of the region. On Thursday, Mr Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, resumed its march to Islamabad, without the injured Mr Khan. Mr Shah thinks that Mr Khan’s message to the army is clear: “If you don’t play ball with me, I will go all the way and discredit and shame you as an institution.” Since his ouster, Mr Khan has called on the army to pressure Mr Sharif for early elections, accusing him of delaying so that his government can appoint an army chief after the current one retires later this month.

How the crisis unfolds matters beyond Pakistan’s borders. The military’s outsize role in Pakistan’s government has long presented a security problem for the US and India, among other nations.

The army has also earned a reputation as the most functional institution in a dysfunctional country. Its officer corps has largely resisted factionalism and remains bound to its chain of command by intense unity and discipline. Moreover, though the army controls vast business interests, it is generally regarded as immune to the kind of day-to-day bribery that marks the country’s civilian institutions. Some scholars regard the military as the glue that holds the country together. If the army collapses, Pakistan might collapse along with it.

Mr Khan’s public broadsides leave the generals with few good options. Firing or transferring Gen Naseer, the ISI official responsible for domestic politics, would signal weakness in the face of Mr Khan’s bullying. But not acting places them on a collision course with arguably Pakistan’s most popular politician. In either case, ordinary Pakistanis — already reeling this year from floods and a tanking economy—likely face even more instability.

Opinion | Imran Khan Pushes Pakistan to the Edge

The former prime minister challenges the idea that it isn’t a state with an army but an army with a state.

www.wsj.com

عمران خان نے پاکستان کو تباہی کے دہانے پر لا کھڑا کیا، امریکی اخبار

مضمون نگار نے لکھا کہ اب امریکا اور اتحادی ایٹمی ہتھیاروں سے لیس پاکستان میں عدم استحکام کیلئے تیار رہیں۔

jang.com.pk

 

[Path-Finder]

this wall s#itreet article is written by a vediq in delhi! since when is a vediq so concerned for the mill establishment of Pakistan??

and the @FOOLS_NIGHTMARE continues the league tradition.

 

[Riz]

this wall s#itreet article is written by a vediq in delhi! since when is a vediq so concerned for the mill establishment of Pakistan??

and the @FOOLS_NIGHTMARE continues the league tradition.

india , sharif family , and rascals are at same page against great IK

 

[diligence]

While Pakistanis are rattled by what this lanati IK had done so far to Pakistan, many world powers are shocked by the impact of the negativity of this manhoos on Pakisani nation-state. After all, Pakistan is an atomic power and any anarchy here will be a nightmare for the rest of the world. This lanati has brought a deep divided in our society (including state institutions) that might be the first step towards a chaos. There is a long list of grave offenses that this lanati has committed against our nation-state but attacking, ridiculing, and humiliating our only well-organized institution (i.e. military) on daily basis is a new norm that will haunt us as nation and in particular our military for a long time to come. All this is due to the weak military and civil leadership. This disgraced predator was not made to face the law when he first started disgracing other civilian state institutions such as judiciary and particularly the Election Commission of Pakistan. Getting away with his disgracing diatribes agaisnt these institutions emboldened him to attack military too. Our state has never been so weak against criminals ever before. I don't know what silly justification our leadership (especially of judiciary and military) might have that stops them from acting against a sick-minded, fascist, and abusive criminal but this lanati has cost us all as a nation dearly.

One very simple and effective way to put a stop on the offenses of this idiot crook is to present all the evidence of the foreign funding of PTI, money laundering of this liar goon and his group of criminals, and diversion of cherity money to his political activities and the making all this evidence public. He is shameless to the core so he would still try using bigotry and blackmail browbeat state institutions. But at least his mentors will be ashamed for what a sh!t they have been making through their 'professional' efforts. Put this idiot IK on the trial on these charges non-stop and send him behind the bars where such a shameless liar and a goon really belongs to. Now the foreign correspondents ask him to present evidence in support of his non-sense claims. Then these foreign correspondents would ask him what non-sense he has to offer to negate all that solid evidence that shows his direct and consistent involvement in money laundering.

 

[ziaulislam]

Glade to see that international establishment finally loves the army..

 

[Bilal9]

india , sharif family , and rascals are at same page against great IK

Add to this the Neocons and Zionists. That WSJ is a New York based Neocon mouthpiece which is well known, the bhakt is just a hired hand. Neither of these foreign groups (all in cahoots) will be happy until they totally sink Pakistan.

It is sad to see that they have Pakistani collaborators now.

 

[ghazi52]

.,.,

 

[SaadH]

IK must be doing something right now that this right wing war mongering pathetic excuse of a news paper responsible for drumming up support for criminal and genocidal wars in Iraq and other Muslim countries is now criticizing IK...

 

[ghazi52]

,.,.

 

[Goenitz]

Is this opinionated? Why there is 'Opinion' written before the title?

 

[epebble]

many world powers are shocked by the impact of the negativity of this manhoos on Pakisani nation-state.

Actually, world powers are surprisingly silent at the goings on in Pakistan. This is the first report I am reading about at length at the antics of IK. Maybe it is due to the war in Ukraine or fatigue after Covid. There was relatively little coverage of the floods and its human impacts too. When PM Sharif made appeals for assistance, there has been polite yawns from the international community. The general attitude of the West seems, after August 2021 withdrawal after the end of Afghan war, don't call us, we will call you.

 

[AlKardai]

.,.,
View attachment 896017

You will hang me

 

[epebble]

so concerned for the mill establishment of Pakistan??

His concern is not so much with military as much as with the state. Nobody wants another Afghanistan.

 

[SQ8]

While Pakistanis are rattled by what this lanati IK had done so far to Pakistan, many world powers are shocked by the impact of the negativity of this manhoos on Pakisani nation-state. After all, Pakistan is an atomic power and any anarchy here will be a nightmare for the rest of the world. This lanati has brought a deep divided in our society (including state institutions) that might be the first step towards a chaos. There is a long list of grave offenses that this lanati has committed against our nation-state but attacking, ridiculing, and humiliating our only well-organized institution (i.e. military) on daily basis is a new norm that will haunt us as nation and in particular our military for a long time to come. All this is due to the weak military and civil leadership. This disgraced predator was not made to face the law when he first started disgracing other civilian state institutions such as judiciary and particularly the Election Commission of Pakistan. Getting away with his disgracing diatribes agaisnt these institutions emboldened him to attack military too. Our state has never been so weak against criminals ever before. I don't know what silly justification our leadership (especially of judiciary and military) might have that stops them from acting against a sick-minded, fascist, and abusive criminal but this lanati has cost us all as a nation dearly.

One very simple and effective way to put a stop on the offenses of this idiot crook is to present all the evidence of the foreign funding of PTI, money laundering of this liar goon and his group of criminals, and diversion of cherity money to his political activities and the making all this evidence public. He is shameless to the core so he would still try using bigotry and blackmail browbeat state institutions. But at least his mentors will be ashamed for what a sh!t they have been making through their 'professional' efforts. Put this idiot IK on the trial on these charges non-stop and send him behind the bars where such a shameless liar and a goon really belongs to. Now the foreign correspondents ask him to present evidence in support of his non-sense claims. Then these foreign correspondents would ask him what non-sense he has to offer to negate all that solid evidence that shows his direct and consistent involvement in money laundering.

 

[Dalit]

The Americans and Indians can only bark from a distance. Imran Khan will eventually return to power.