The gloves are off

With one seismic shift after another, this has truly been a week in which Pakistan’s political uncertainty has become more uncertain. But the twists in the plot suggest that we are moving towards a climax. They call it the chase sequence in a movie.

Now that Imran Khan has embarked on his long march from Lahore, the situation remains in a state of flux. Something may happen between the time I am writing these words and when this newspaper is delivered to its readers – who do not read these writings much.

Anyhow, where does one begin? Chronology would demand precedence for prominent Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif’s murder on a lonely path in Kenya in the small hours on Monday. Initial reports said that he was killed when Kenyan cops shot at the car in which he was travelling in what they said was a case of mistaken identity.

However, there was no mistake about how this mysterious murder, because of what it meant in the context of Imran Khan’s confrontation with the establishment, has become the catalyst for this week’s earth-shattering developments. That’s how we had this stunning, unprecedented spectacle of a press conference on Thursday in which DG ISI Lt-Gen Nadeem Anjum made his surprise appearance.

A writer of detective fiction would be pleased to pull this out of the hat. Since his appointment as the head of the nation’s premier intelligence agency almost exactly a year ago, Gen Nadeem Anjum had largely been missing from public glare. He was not to be seen in pictures and video coverage of high-level meetings he would attend, unlike his predecessor.

On Thursday, the press conference was called by the ISPR chief, Lt-Gen Babar Iftikhar. This would in itself excite great media interest and eager anticipation in the wake of Imran Khan’s insinuations about Arshad Sharif’s assassination. But the military’s spokesperson had an unexpected gift for the media: the DG of the ISI.

Aside from the astonishment that this appearance created, what the ISI DG had to say was remarkable. His purpose seemed to be to dismantle the narrative that Imran Khan had built after his ouster in April. Gen Nadeem Anjum said that so many lies had been spoken without being challenged that one had to begin to speak the truth.

Essentially, his point was that the army leadership was being maligned for refusing to help the former prime minister through illegal and extra-constitutional measures when he faced the vote of no-confidence. So, he had to appear before the media to defend his institution and his agency against one-sided lies. “I have come to break the silence of truth”, Gen Nadeem Anjum stated in a firm voice.

It was a long session and both, the spymaster and the military spokesperson, answered many questions, also relating to the circumstances in which Arshad Sharif was killed. But the gist of it was the establishment’s open and categorical denunciation of Imran Khan’s censure of the institution for not taking his side and ensuring early general elections.

“Calling someone a traitor, or Mir Jaffer and Mir Sadiq is not acceptable”, the ISI chief insisted, particularly when Imran Khan was secretly meeting the same person — that is, the chief of the army staff.

So far, there had been considerable ambivalence about the establishment’s attitude towards Imran Khan, even when the PTI leader was casting veiled or direct aspersions on the army leadership and when social media warriors were taking names in an offensive manner. In fact, observers were baffled by this tolerance of Imran Khan’s consistent attacks.

Was it because Imran Khan had become very popular and politically strong? It was hard to explain why he was getting away with so much. But, finally, the presser on Thursday has proclaimed a breakup between Imran Khan and the establishment. The bridges have been burnt. The gloves are off.

What would this imply for the future of Imran Khan and his party? Significantly, the ISI chief made his bombshell appearance on the eve of the PTI’s announced long march which took off on Friday afternoon. In their statements, the big guns of the army repeatedly asserted the institution’s resolve to remain within the bounds of the constitution and not interfere in politics. They acknowledged the right of political parties to stage peaceful protests — a stance that the ruling alliance has held.

I am tempted to dwell a bit on the love affair that had continued so long between Imran Khan and the establishment. As a politician, he was nurtured in the lap of the establishment. There are disputes about many other things but everyone agrees about how Imran Khan was ushered into power in 2018. They sang the ‘same page’ chorus for so long.

So, what has happened now is a separation, a divorce. And a divorce can be messy and vicious. Institutional behaviour may have its own traits but Imran Khan knows no fidelity as a person. We cannot be sure about how he will handle this new relationship.

Where is the long march headed now? Faisal Vawda, in defiance of his leader, had predicted bloodshed in the march in his press talk on Wednesday. There is always some potential for disorder in such large and long campaigns. The long march may not pose a threat to the present arrangement but politics as such is surely marching into a new territory.

After being a little cautious initially, Imran Khan responded to Thursday’s explosive press conference in an aggressive manner when he started his long march on Friday – addressing the ISI chief in the same way as you declare the end of a dialogue.

The writer is a senior journalist. He can be reached at: ghazi_salahuddin@ hotmail.com

Originally published in The News