Imran Khan between making and breaking history
Dr.. Dr. Mohamed Makram Balaawi
President of the Asia-Middle East Forum
Imran Khan's arrival as prime minister of Pakistan was not as easy as his predecessors such as Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, as he was not the scion of a political or feudal family like them, as this coming from the world of sports made his way through demonstrations and popular events for two decades, protesting against corruption, dependency and state weakness, all of which was based on the youth element who saw in Khan not only the captain of the national cricket team, but a person accustomed to success and victory, and the only one who was not contaminated by the germ of corruption that has plagued the political class since the establishment of Pakistan in 1947, so when Khan made his big promises in his election campaign that led him to victory, he made them the size of the ambition and hopes of young people, thus putting himself and his government in front of a difficult challenge.
The bloody separation from India and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has made Pakistan obsessed with self-preservation against an adversary at least six times larger than it, namely India, so the entire state's energy was directed towards self-preservation, and the state's resources were devoted to building a military and security system capable of withstanding any possible Indian aggression, which resulted in a set of serious consequences, the most important of which is the inflated role of the military establishment and its effective control over the reins of power.
This situation also resulted in the weakness of the civilian apparatus of the state and the widespread phenomenon of financial corruption represented by bribery, mismanagement, waste of public money, and the control of feudal families, which made the Pakistani economy, despite the availability of human wealth, raw materials, a large market, and a privileged geographical location, groan under the burden of foreign debts and donations. These reasons, in addition to the axis policy that Pakistan accepted when it was founded, led to the weakening of its influence in leading the Islamic world, and ended up playing supporting roles for both the United States and Saudi Arabia mainly, while focusing its regional and international role on the Kashmir issue, which almost obscured Pakistan's vision from other issues.
Successive governments in Pakistan have worked according to these principles, which aim externally to achieve balance in international relations and internally to maintain stability, a behavior that at best aims to maintain the status quo, which over time has proven to be impossible, and with it the economic, living and security situation in the country has deteriorated. When this game was about to lose its effect, the army, the true master of the state, had the option of "lifting the lid" on the two traditional parties and allowing Imran Khan and his party, Tehrik-e-Insaf (Justice Movement), to win and form the government, the military, the true master of the state, had the option of "lifting the lid" on the two traditional parties and allowing Imran Khan and his party, Tehrik-e-Insaf (Justice Movement), to win and form the government.
It is clear that Imran Khan has come up with a vision of the Pakistan he wants, an ambitious, almost idealistic vision that can be summarized at the domestic level by bringing the country to good governance, which Imran Khan usually expresses as the Medina State, and at the external level by rejecting the logic of dependency and dealing with foreign powers from a position of equality rather than begging, governed by Pakistan's interests first and foremost, and to achieve this he sought to exercise effective rule, which was manifested by trying to impose his authority as prime minister on the most important institution in the country, the armed forces by interfering in the appointments of its senior ranks, especially the chief of staff and its most dangerous arm, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
It is clear that Imran Khan has come up with a vision of the Pakistan he wants, an ambitious, almost idealistic vision that can be summarized domestically as bringing the country to good governance, which Imran Khan often refers to as the Medina State
Imran Khan launched a comprehensive "reform" campaign that ignored the principle of gradualism and ignored that systems as old as the state cannot be changed all at once, all without having sufficient tools, which turned both inside and outside against him, and put his government in front of challenges that made it impossible to continue. Suddenly, we saw dozens of MPs from his party defecting, which made the opposition, seeing the army abandon him and losing his parliamentary majority, seek to bring him down by putting pressure on him to resign or through a no confidence motion against his government, but he chose to mobilize the street and accuse inside and outside of a conspiracy to bring him down and undermine Pakistan's independence, and when he realized that his downfall in parliament had become inevitable, he accused the opposition of betrayal and used a clause in the constitution to enable him to avoid a no-confidence motion. When he realized that his fall in parliament was inevitable, he accused the opposition of treason and used a clause in the Pakistani constitution that enables him to ignore the no-confidence motion, claiming that opposition lawmakers work for a foreign country and calling for the dissolution of parliament and early elections, which the opposition considered unconstitutional, as far from Khan's survival or departure, it fixes on them the charge of working for foreigners without a legal face, and the legal battle is still ongoing, but the end has become certain: Imran Khan's loss of the prime minister's chairmanship.
On the external level, he tried from the beginning of his rule to emphasize the peer relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through his foreign minister's criticism of the Saudi position on the Kashmir issue, which prompted Saudi Arabia to demand that Pakistan, with a tired economy, pay outstanding debts worth three billion dollars, and the Chief of Staff was forced to fly to Saudi Arabia to repair the damage, and he later tried to participate in the Kuala Lumpur Summit conference called by his then Malaysian counterpart, Mahathir bin Mohammed, and was forced to retreat from participation due to Saudi pressure, while on the relationship with the West, especially the United States, he directed his constant criticism of it, especially on the issue of Kashmir
Imran Khan has put the political class and the army in his country in a difficult situation by insisting on hitting the rules of the political game against the wall, by addressing the media and accusing his opponents of treason and foreign collaboration, addressing the youth audience and asking them to take to the streets, and evoking the religious and national sentiment of the general Pakistani people, ignoring the army's warnings, and he also provoked the United States and Europe at a time when the country is going through difficult economic conditions, which will make his return to power very difficult, and at the same time his loss may provoke the feelings of large parts of the Pakistani people, especially the youth, and
Source: Arabic
https://arabi21.com/story/1432292/
