Pakistan

Pak Army Intervenes to end Imran-Nawaz Stand off

The General summoned the leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) separately for discussions. While what transpired at the talks is not in public domain, both Imran and Qadri appeared satisfied.

The Pakistani army has intervened in the country’s political crisis in what has been described as a "soft coup" by some commentators and by some others as "civilian coup". Army chief General Raheel Sharif intervened on Aug 28th Thursday night as the standoff between the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan- Tahril-ul- Qadri led street protests for his resignation.

The General summoned the leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) separately for discussions. While what transpired at the talks is not in public domain, both Imran and Qadri appeared satisfied. “The army chief has asked us to give him 24 hours to solve the crisis,” Qadri said later and hailed the army’s intervention as a victory.

Imran Khan, who has been promising a political Tsunami for some time, told his supporters at the protest venue that he got the assurances he was looking for. “The army chief has assured me that a judicial commission would be formed to investigate my charges of rigging in 2013 elections”, he said and added that the General had promised to be a “neutral umpire”. Imran also claimed that a compromise had been reached on his key demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Sharif.  “PM will step down for 30 days while the rigging charges are probed”, he said. Since this compromise is not to the liking of the ruling alliance and all other parties in Parliament, dark clouds remained on the horizon.

The PTI-PTA protests began on August 15. While the former harped on electoral rigging charge, the later built its case around police firing on PTA followers in Lahore’s Model Town early August. The protesters converged on the Red Square in Islamabad where the parliament building and main government administrative offices are located. The government side held several rounds of talks with Khan -Qadri combine through intermediaries but failed to end the impasse. It was against this backdrop, Prime Minister Sharif met the Army Chief Sharif on Aug 28. It was their third meeting in nine days.

On the floor of Parliament, facing a barrage of questions and taunts, Prime Minister asserted that he did not seek army’s intervention. “The army did not ask to play the role of mediator, neither have we requested them to play such a role,” he maintained. The Minister for the Interior and a strongman of the ruling PML-N, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan also took an identical stand in Parliament and in his media interactions.

For reasons which will remain in the realm of conjectures, the army spokesman, Asim Bajwa, punctured these claims. He went public with the assertion that his chief took upon the job facilitating a solution to Imran-Sharif stand-off at the behest of the Prime Minister.  “The COAS [Chief of Army Staff] was asked by the government to play facilitative role for resolution of current impasse, in yesterday’s meeting, at PM House”, he said in a tweet on Aug 29.

Both Imran and Qadri have been getting lot of bad press. In fact most dailies particularly in English have shown no sympathy to them. And have been questioning their motives. The question tossed at Imran is that why did he rake up rigging issue one year after the elections were held. Another question hurled at him was when he did not press his case at the poll tribunals in respect mot more than fifty-odd seats, how he can now dub the entire election as a fraud. 

Conscious of the flak that is coming their way, both Imran and Qadri have come down from the high ground they thought was theirs and watered down their demands with a straight face. This suited the military too since GHQ wanted to strike a quick breakthrough to end the impasse which has adversely affected the economy and put a question mark on further loans from the IMF.  

Imran is no longer calling for Sharif to permanently step aside. And Qadri appears content if punishment is given to whoever had ordered police firing on Aug 9 rally of his supporters in Mode Town that left eight dead.   His demand has since been met not fully though. The Lahore Police have registered a case and named Prime Minister Sharif, his brother Shahbaz, who is Punjab chief minister and some police officers as accused.  .

What next? Well there is a big suspense on what next.  The intervention of the Army in a political crisis is a cause for concern since Pakistan has been ruled by the army for long stretches since 1947- the year it was born as the land of the pure for Muslims. And Army has acquired a hallowed status and became a part of the trinity that guides Pakistan’s destiny along with America and Saudi Arabia.   

In the present crisis, Washington has opted to be a bystander and did not get involved apparently its hands are full in Middle East and it needs both Gen Sharif and Premier Sharif to fructify its plans for Afghanistan. So much so, it has sounded a general warning publicly against a military coup on the one hand and has lent its tacit support to the army’s intervention to break the deadlock on the other hand. The American line became clear when State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki on Aug 30 expressed satisfaction saying the situation in Pakistan “seemed to be moving towards a peaceful resolution”.

All this is a setback to Prime Minister Sharif undoubtedly. As a long time Pakistan observer said he has to pay the price for seeking to marginalise the military from politics and for taking over decision-making on defence and strategic matters. Over the past year, he also ignored the concerns of the Army and went ahead with indicting Musharraf for treason and forcing him to remain under house arrest for the sin of 1999 coup he had staged to dislodge the Second Sharif government. There may be valid grounds for his plan to enter into a dialogue with the Pakistan Taliban, which is bad Taliban for the Army, but by pressing ahead with his plan he not only ended up exposing his own flanks but also provided an opening the Army needed to reassert its authority in the most plausible way in matters political and defence. The US was happy and unhappy – happy that the Pak Army was able to launch an operation against Taliban, and unhappy that the Pak Army had spared the Haqqani Network, which in the eyes of Washington deserves to be targeted as well.   

It is too early to crystal gaze the turn of events. More so since China also appearing to defuse the Pak situation in its own larger interest.  Like his predecessor, Kayani, Raheel Sharif may also not like to burden himself with a failing economy and consequent public anger. Yet, it is difficult to agree with Ayesha Siddiqa’s assertion that Nawaz Sharif would now be a “ceremonial prime minister” for the rest of his term. At least for the moment.  

—RAM SINGH KALCHURI

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