Pakistan: What next for Imran Khan? Perhaps a bleak future

Pakistan is boiling and Imran Khan's party leaders like Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Fawad Choudhary have also been arrested.

Leave apart Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Iqbal, arguably the two tallest icons of Pakistan, perhaps no other individual has made an impact, in the past half a century, on the minds of the people of Pakistan as deeply as cricketer-turned-political leader Imran Khan. This was very much evident when Pakistanis went on the rampage against the arrest of the former Prime minister on alleged corruption charges. The angry nation sees their hero as the victim of a nefarious role jointly played by the Rawalpindi-based Army bosses and the political leadership governing the country now.

The situation is quite grave in Punjab, the life and soul of Pakistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, commonly abbreviated as KP. Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has a formidable support base in both these provinces and he has banked on their support since his defiant streak began. And they haven’t disappointed the Pathan leader.

Pak Army: Past Masters At Stumping PMs

It is this support which gave Imran Khan the strength to take on the  Army and his political rivals head-on since his ouster from the PM’s post last April. Even when he was the Prime Minister, he was not toeing the line of all-powerful Army blindly. It was something the Pakistan Army, also referred to as the “Establishment”, had never imagined. After all, its writ has always prevailed, at least since 1958. That year Midnapore-born Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, removed as PM of Pakistan in 1957, was arrested by General Ayub Khan (an Aligarh Muslim University alumnus), following a military coup.

Suhrawardy is perhaps more remembered today for courting infamy in India as the Prime Minister of Bengal when the great Calcutta killings took place in 1946. His arrest was the beginning of Army’s vice-like grip on the political affairs of Pakistan. Later, another PM, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was arrested. He was sentenced to death and executed on April 4, 1979. That happened under the watchful eyes of Jalandhar-born General Zia ul Haq. Imran Khan too traces his roots to Jalandhar’s Basti Danishmanda, where his family had even established the Islamia College.

Between ZA Bhutto and Imran now, three more PMs including Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, were also arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for alleged corruption.

Pakistan's first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated on October 16, 1951. Liaquat Ali Khan was the Finance minister in the interim government headed by  Jawaharlal Lal Nehru in 1946 and he even presented the budget that was known as the “anti-Hindu-businessmen budget”. His death remains a mystery, though it is said that the Army hatched a plan to finish him.

Imran’s Popular Support

However, Pakistan had never reacted so sharply or angrily to the arrest or deposition of any of these leaders. Who would have imagined that people would revolt against the Army or burn down their establishments. After all, the army was considered as the saviour of the country. It is quite an unbelievable situation.

The combative mood could be attributed to a majority of people seeing Imran as their only ray of hope in a time of extreme economic distress. The laurels he brought for his country and the building of hospitals when everything was going from bad to worse from the 1980s onwards made him an icon that many Pakistanis were proud of. Imran’s spotless career as a cricketer, grooming of many promising cricketers from humble origins, and achievements like winning the 1992 Cricket World Cup have made ordinary Pakistani believe he has the capacity to make huge changes in the country and to their lives.

That Pakistanis attribute a sense of fair play and justice to him could be attributed to his personal initiatives such as when he was captain of the Pakistan cricket team he invited Indian umpires to officiate in Pakistan's test match against the West Indies in Lahore. It was the first time that neutral umpires officiated in a Test match, at a time when home umpires in most places were notorious for bias.

Judiciary, The Last Hope?

Almost two decades ago on November 4, 2004, Imran Khan was going to Delhi’s Jama Masjid with his old pal, Muneeb Iqbal, and your’s truly.  Despite the winter chill, Imran was comfortable in a blue shirt and black trousers. For a change, he was speaking in his mother tongue, Punjabi. As the car was moving on Lutyens Delhi roads, on a question on his reputation for fair play he said: “I cannot accept injustice or unfair play at any cost whatsoever. When I became captain of Pakistan, I dropped my hero and cousin brother, Majid Khan, from the side as he was not performing well. When we built Shaukat Khanum hospital, my father used to look after the affairs of it. But, when I realised that age is catching up and he is not doing justice to his job, I requested him to stay at home.”

But power politics is different. It is all about compromises, managing things and giving space to others, including to your critics and detractors as well. But, Imran Khan is a very stubborn character. He has a messianic instinct that only he can reform Pakistan and that he is the only honest guy in Pakistan. That’s a huge personality flaw from which Alas, he makes more enemies than friends. This could explain why he couldn’t develop long-standing cordial ties with Qamar Javad Bajwa, the Army Chief who was responsible for his becoming the Prime Minister.

Pakistan is boiling and his party leaders like Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Fawad Choudhary have also been arrested. Things look very bleak for Imran Khan as of now.  The Army Chief Asif Munir will certainly be thinking how to settle his score with Imran Khan, as he had cut short his stint as ISI chief in 2019, replacing him with his favourite Faiz Hamid. Imran Khan was keen to make Hamid as the new Army chief after Gen Bajwa. He could not do so as his government fell last April. What next for Imran Khan ? Perhaps only the judiciary can save him.

Vivek Shukla is a journalist who writes on Delhi's history and South Asian culture and politics. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.