Imran Khan is stable after march shooting. Is Pakistan?
| Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Seven months after he was ousted by a parliamentary vote of no confidence, former Pakistani Prime Minister聽Imran Khan had planned to march triumphantly into the capital, Islamabad, next week at the head of hundreds of thousands of his supporters and compel the government to call early elections.
Instead, he was rushed to the hospital on Thursday after a man opened fire on his convoy, injuring Mr. Khan in the foot. By Friday evening he had recovered sufficiently to hold a press conference, blaming the apparent assassination attempt on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and a top general in Pakistan鈥檚 premier intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence.
But behind the drama reigns a widespread atmosphere of distrust and discord among Pakistani voters, say ordinary citizens and political analysts, after decades of opaque dealings between the country鈥檚 political leaders and the military.
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onBehind the drama of mass marches and assassination attempts, Pakistani politics is mired in broad popular mistrust of the nation鈥檚 leaders and their ties to the military.
鈥淲hy should we have any faith in politics when our leaders have consistently demonstrated that they are only interested in power?鈥� says Asif Ghani, who works at a toy store in Rawalpindi, a city adjacent to the capital.
鈥淲hen the current government was in opposition, they were demanding free and fair elections and Imran was saying that the parliament would complete its term,鈥� Mr. Ghani recalls. 鈥淣ow Imran is saying he wants free and fair elections, and the government is saying it intends to complete its term. What is the ordinary person supposed to conclude from all this?鈥�
For local political commentator Murtaza Solangi, Mr. Khan鈥檚 crusade against graft and nepotism, branding all his political opponents as 鈥渁 band of crooks,鈥� has polarized Pakistani society.
Yesterday鈥檚 apparent assassination attempt on Mr. Khan, he argues, is just the latest symptom of a country rent by discord. 鈥淭he seeds of bigotry and intolerance sown by our deep state and nourished by many politicians, including Imran Khan himself, are now bearing fruit,鈥� he says.
Deep distrust
In the months since his ouster as prime minister, Mr. Khan has launched a three-pronged attack against the Pakistani army, Washington, and the coalition government led by Mr. Sharif, all of which he blames for his downfall.
His campaign has propelled his party to a string of by-election victories, but has been less successful in mobilizing support for his planned siege on the capital. Mr. Khan had expected a tsunami of demonstrators to follow him from Lahore to Islamabad and overthrow the government; in fact, until yesterday鈥檚 attack, the 鈥淔reedom March鈥� had struggled to gather momentum.
That, says Ahtasham Mangool, a manager in a medical company in Rawalpindi, is because people do not trust politicians to work for the public good. 鈥淚mran Khan says he will bring accountability into the system but look at the people he has around him,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hese are the same people who have never let anyone prosper in their constituencies. How can we believe that they will ever let anyone succeed except for themselves?鈥�
With annual inflation running at around 26% in October, there is widespread dissatisfaction with the government, but not much enthusiasm for Mr. Khan as an alternate. Though his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, won the most recent parliamentary by-election last month, only 35% of voters bothered to cast a ballot.
Such is the mistrust in the political system that some even question whether the attempt on Mr. Khan鈥檚 life was genuine. 鈥淚 think Imran Khan did it himself because his march was failing and he wanted to get a boost from the public,鈥� says Saleem, a daily wage laborer who asked to be identified only by his given name. 鈥淓veryone knows that the army runs the country and Imran Khan made a big mistake by crossing them. The generals will never let anyone else take control.鈥�
The ever-present army
Civil-military discord has troubled Pakistan throughout its 75-year history, and the country has oscillated between overt and covert military rule.聽聽
Mr. Khan鈥檚 critics contend that his victory in the 2018 elections would not have been possible without the army鈥檚 interference, and they chided him when he was serving as prime minister for having been 鈥渟elected,鈥� rather than elected. But as soon as rifts developed between Mr. Khan and his military backers, the same opposition exploited this breakdown to return to power.
鈥淭he mess we are in today is largely due to the fact that political leaders are not united on key issues concerning the country鈥檚 political system,鈥� says veteran political analyst Raza Ahmad聽Rumi, who teaches at Ithaca College in New York.
鈥淭hey all think that making bids and deals with the army will give them power, so when they are in opposition they look for a deal, and when they are in government they defend the armed forces,鈥� Mr. Rumi adds. This has further eroded trust in the political system.
鈥淚mran Khan used to say that the military establishment was on his side. Now he blames them for removing him from power,鈥� points out toy salesman Mr. Ghani.
Mr. Khan differs from his predecessors, argues Mr. Rumi, in that he doesn鈥檛 pretend to stand for constitutional supremacy. 鈥淗is public posturing does not demand that the military should go back to the barracks,鈥� Mr. Rumi says. 鈥淚n fact, what he says is that the military should act on his behalf and install him because he is cleaner and more honest than his political opponents.鈥�
How the apparent attempt on his life will impact Mr. Khan politically is still unclear. But 鈥渁s a shrewd politician who uses every crisis as an opportunity,鈥� says Mr. Solangi, 鈥淚mran will use this as a pressure valve to make maximum gains.鈥�
