Pakistanis want to take Imran down. Bajwa wants to protect him but Army wants to take down Bajwa.

Imran Khan is perhaps the only Pakistan Prime Minister to have enjoyed the support of both the judiciary and the military during his tenure and yet his government has failed to deliver on all fronts. There are increasing concerns that the Pakistan national assembly elections were rigged by the army to make Khan the Prime Minister. The opposition parties have united against the Imran Khan government and Pakistan is in midst of the ‘Azadi March’ as the opposition parties have called for Khan to resign over his failure to control Pakistan’s rising inflation and deteriorating economy. 

The protest which is being led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman – a staunch critic of Imran Khan has given an ultimatum to him to resign. As Pakistan continues to be on the brink, the Qamar Bajwa led Army has stepped in to save Imran Khan as they have claimed that no one will be allowed to create instability and chaos, however, Bajwa himself could be facing a hush-hush mutiny in the ranks.

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Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s protest match has seen a large swathe of crowds which has made Imran Khan uneasy as all the major opposition parties have also ended their support to the protest. In his address to tens of thousands of protestors, the Maulana said the “Gorbachev of Pakistan” must resign without testing the patience of peaceful protestors.

He directly hit out at the Army and the judiciary in a thinly veiled reference as he also said that only people of Pakistan and not any “institution” had the right to govern the country. The hardline Maulana was quoted saying: “We do not want conflict with our institutions. But we also want to see them stay neutral. We give two days to the institutions (also) to decide if they will continue to support this government.”

Imran Khan has refused to resign and has called the protests motivated as he claims that the opposition leaders want his government to pardon them for their cases of corruption, embezzlement, money laundering and terrorism.

It is important to note that opposition stalwarts and former President and Prime Minister, Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif have been jailed and now both are said to be critical as in a mysterious turn of events both were admitted to hospital for registering a sharp drop in their blood platelet and it is believed they were poisoned during their stay in jail.

Most of the PPP and the PML-N leaders are currently in jail as Imran Khan with the help of the military aims to finish off the opposition as in his defiant speech in Gilgit-Baltistan he vowed: “to put all of them (opposition leaders) in jail.”

Additionally, the Imran Khan government has decided to file a case of mutiny against Maulana Fazlur Rehman for delivering a provocative speech and “instigating people” against Prime Minister Imran Khan and state institutions. Imran Khan has only exposed his hypocrisy by his authoritarian reaction to the protests as in the past during the tenure of Nawaz Sharif, he had carried out a protest seeking the resignation of the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. 

India’s move to abrogate Article 370 has provided an opportunity to Khan to shift the country’s focus from the deteriorating economy. The economy continues to lie in the doldrums and while Pakistan might have escaped getting into the FATF blacklist until February 2020 thanks to China, Pakistan has failed to check terror financing despite being in the grey list which in turn, costs the Pakistan economy an annual loss of whopping $10 billion. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is doing his best to mislead his countrymen which is evident from the fact that he recently posted some incomplete statistics about foreign investment and current account deficit of Pakistan, and labelled it as an economic turnaround!

A 111.5% increase in foreign direct investment in September 2019 as compared to the corresponding month last year could be attributed largely to the $224.6 million in licence renewal fees paid by the Norwegian multinational telecommunication company Telenor that was issued to it fifteen years ago. The total FDI in September 2019 without Telenor’s licence renewal fee inflow reduced by almost 12% compared to the corresponding month last year and direct investment from China also reduced by almost 70% in the first quarter of 2020 as compared to the same period of the fiscal year 2019. Inflation in the country has also hit double-digit numbers and this prolonged suffering of the people may spark civil unrest. This has prompted the Pakistan opposition to turn the heat on Imran Khan and his government and demand his resignation.

Qamar Bajwa has yet again come to the rescue of Imran Khan by attempting to quell the massive protests but it remains to be seen how long can Bajwa protect Khan from his political opponents. Bajwa could himself be facing a revolt from within his military as his unwarranted extension has upset the Army officials.

Bajwa was slated to complete his tenure in November but the ‘puppet’ PM Khan granted him a three-year extension. Bajwa has effectively broken the rule by overstaying his welcome and it will impact the overall professionalisation of the upper cadres. The Maulana’s Azadi March could be enjoying the support of senior generals opposing Bajwa. With the disillusionment of senior generals, if sections of the Army revolts against Bajwa, it won’t be surprising as in the past, the army has removed generals like Musharraf, Ayub and Zia who had also overstayed their welcome. 

Pakistan is headed for a turmoil as both Khan and Bajwa battle to save their positions and while no one knows who wins in this game of musical chairs but one thing is for sure; the Pakistan economy will be completely broken.