Imran Khan promised to end Pakistan’s tryst with ‘corrupt’ and ‘dynastic’ politicians. He insisted that his government would restore Pakistan’s sovereignty, breaking the International Monetary Fund (IMF) begging bowl forever, and never again acceding to the role of frontline state in ‘America’s wars’. He prided himself as a born-again Muslim who would free Pakistani society from the vice-like grip of a decadent western pop culture.
The army has the reins
In the end, it was the proverbial elephant in the room that he dared not name — Pakistan’s pre-eminent political-economic force, the army — that ended his prime ministerial crusade. Mr. Khan may have been formally deposed through a Supreme Court-assisted vote of no-confidence in Pakistan’s lower house of Parliament in early April, but it is an open secret that his fall came after falling foul of the army’s top brass which, less than four years earlier, had facilitated his ascent to the country’s top elected office. It is said that the generals had planned for Mr. Khan to be in power for two consecutive five-year terms; as it turned out, their patience ran out even before the end of the first one.
There is nothing novel about a Pakistani Prime Minister going out kicking and screaming having lost favour with the army. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, his daughter Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz Sharif, among others, have all suffered a similar fate. With the exception of the nine-year military regime of General Pervez Musharraf, the Bhuttos...
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