THE incident of 9 May 2023 was extraordinary and strange from many perspectives. Unfortunately, in the last one year, it has been portrayed differently among the masses by a vested group of a political outfit. The entire happening has to be seen and debated as a wholesome and unusual event which needs retrospection with the future consequences over the state, institutions and society of Pakistan. It has to be evaluated and gauged from the perspective of emerging challenges to the national security and national integration of Pakistan. Unexpectedly, for the first time in the history of Pakistan, a group of political party, dared to cross the red-line by directly assaulting the military installations in various parts of the country. This also includes assaulting and looting of Corps Commander’s House in Lahore and assaulting the Mall Road Gate of GHQ, Rawalpindi. Besides, many other military installations were attacked and destroyed by the charged mobs of a political party. Indeed, this has never happened in the entire history of Pakistan. Rather, there has been an intimate and deep-rooted relationship between defence forces of Pakistan and the general masses.
The people of Pakistan have always loved their soldiers in uniform and backed their roles in the defence of the state’s geographical boundaries and in the maintenance of state’s sovereignty. It was dedicated support of the masses which enabled the security forces of Pakistan to win the war against terrorism. Besides, in all wars against India, the people of Pakistan stood behind its military. The question arises, why there have been violent attacks against military installations and sensitive areas under military control after arrest of Imran Khan. The incident warrants a wholesome retrospection; the motives behind, the factors promptings the incident and the future prospects.
Indeed, all of this is happening because of the polarization of Pakistani society, which itself originated from years of bad governance in the country. Over the years, there has been a gradual polarization of Pakistani society from multiple angles: religious and sectarian, factional and ethnic, provincial and political. While all other forms of polarization are occurring covertly in various parts of the country, political polarization has dominated society since April 2022. This polarization started with the change of PTI Government at the Centre. It is worth mentioning that in the last few months of the PTI Government, its popularity graph had fallen to the lowest ebb and even some of the PTI MPs were quite vocal against the policies of top PTI leadership including its Chairman, Mr Imran Khan. The change of government (so-called regime change) was a blessing for the PTI, since it gave a new life for the dying character of this political outfit. Indeed, it was resuscitation under the garb of a new narrative of American role in the regime change.
The anti-American narrative of the PTI Government (which they portrayed and publicized at the time of regime change) got currency and PTI regained its lost popularity once again after the process of regime change. It is worth mentioning that the performance and popularity of PTI was at its lowest ebb towards the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022. The same was inverted because of anti-American sentiments and narrative which was a well planned event and executed by a well-wisher of Imran Khan who dreamt and planned to be at the helm of affairs for a foreseeable future. Upon accruing the maximum benefits of anti-American narrative, the PTI leadership decided to take a gradual U-turn and started getting closer to America by interpreting that it was General Bajwa who changed the government and brought into power the corrupt politicians of PDM whom he himself declared as corrupt during his meetings and official briefings besides at the time of exit of Nawaz Sharif in 2017 and general election-2018.
Unfortunately, the performance of the PDM government under Prime Minister Shehbaz had been below expectations. His government could not deliver in sixteen months, and the later Interim Government under Anwarul Haq Kakar also disappointed the Pakistani masses. Pakistani citizens were highly disappointed over the bad governance and record-high inflation during the PDM Government and Kakar Regime. The Wheat Scam-2024 is yet another revelation that caused unusual harm to the Pakistani economy and agricultural sector. The poor governance system of the PDM and Interim Government was fully exploited by PTI, as the reasons for their failure are widely recognized, with many attributing it to the landmines planted by PTI.
Unfortunately, all political parties of Pakistan want democracy in their own terms and for their own interests and benefits rather for Pakistan and people of Pakistan. They interpret and recognize democracy in the country once they are in power, otherwise it is not a democracy nor there is rule of law once they are in opposition. Imran Khan and PTI have a totalitarian political philosophy: if PTI is in power then all is good; democracy, the judiciary and the establishment, if not, nothing is fair and nothing is in order.
Unfortunately, some political forces consider themselves and their political outfits over and above the state of Pakistan. It is utmost important for the masses of Pakistan to assess and evaluate the political parties from the perspective of their performance while they were in power. The broad criteria should be good governance, economic uplift of the state and masses, foreign policy issues and a wholesome security of state and society from all aspects. As a way forward, there is an immediate need for serious retrospection of the wrong-doings of the past and defining a clear future course of action for the betterment of the state and society of Pakistan.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
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