Why Pakistani Army chief Asim Munir wants to write Imran Khan off the page

Gen Asim Munir, Pakistan Army chief

Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir, who played a key role in getting Imran Khan arrested and is determined to dismantle his party, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (the freedom party), has a long history of enmity with the former Pakistani Prime Minister.

Munir became the army chief in November 2022, replacing Qamar Javed Bajwa, who had served in the post from 2016.

Munir ran afoul of Khan in 2018 when he was the director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the latter was prime minister of the country.

The ISI chief was removed from the post because he showed Khan evidence of his wife’s involvement in corruption, said Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif,

Others felt Khan replaced Munir as he wanted his trusted general, Faiz Hameed, in that post.

When Munir was due to become the army chief by virtue of being the senior-most general, Khan tried to scuttle his chances by offering an extension to Bajwa, though the two had already strained their relations by then.

However, as Khan lost the trust vote in Parliament subsequently and was thrown out of power in April 2022, the new government, headed by Shahbaz Sharif, appointed Munir the army chief.

Munir, who retired a few days before Bajwa’s term ended, was appointed by amending the existing law. His service was thus extended and he was able to take up the top post in the army.

However, Munir showed restraint and refrained from involving the army in Pakistan’s domestic policy for some months after becoming the army chief.

But Khan’s relentless campaign against the army, and charges that sections in the military establishment were behind the abortive plan to assassinate him, made the top echelons of the army decide that it had to act against the former prime minister.

They got the chance to go after Khan and his PTI supporters after the violence of May 9.

Soon after it became known that Khan was arrested by the security forces from the court where he came for a hearing in a case against him, his supporters resorted to violence and mayhem in a countrywide protest.

In the process, they attacked a number of army installations, breached the official residence of the corps commander, Lahore, and vandalised statues of martyred soldiers.

The violence and unprecedented attack on army installations were widely publicised and succeeded in turning public opinion against Khan and his PTI supporters.

The Shahbaz Sharif government has been on the same page as the army in the drive against punishing Khan and his party over the past months.

Without power in either the provinces or at the national level, and under pressure from the authorities, especially through regular arrests and interrogations, nearly 100 leaders of the PTI and close aides of Khan have left the party.

Many have temporarily retired from politics, while others, on the urging of the army, have floated their own political outfits, such as the PTI (Parliamentarian), formed by Khan’s former defence minister Pervez Khattak, or sugar baron and former PTI backer Jahangir Tareen’s Ishtekhan-e-Pakistan Party.

Khan has said he will contest the elections under a new banner.

Many former Pakistani prime ministers, such as Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, bounced back after their detention or banishment from the country by the army.

It is not clear if Khan can do the same.

If Nawaz Sharif becomes the new Prime Minister, his popularity can effectively counter Khan.

Meanwhile, Munir has managed to consolidate his position as the Pakistan army chief.

Recently, he signed a new defence pact with the US, called the Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CIS-MOA).

The agreement is likely to expedite sale of weapons and military hardware from the US to Pakistan and enhance security cooperation.

The earlier defence pact, which was signed in 2005, expired in 2020.

Khan was brought to power by the army with the expectation that the Oxford-educated former cricket superstar would charm Washington and put US-Pakistan relations back on track.

Bilateral relations had been strained severely during the US’ Afghanistan war with Pakistan supporting the Taliban.

In subsequent years, as the US deepened ties with India, Pakistan leaned more towards China, a country the US identified as its main global rival, leading to further stress in US-Pakistan relations.

But Khan failed to revive ties with the US and made things worse with his regular anti-US rhetoric to earn brownie points at home.

Since his departure as the prime minister, there has been a revival in relations between the US and Pakistan both at the political and military level.

Last year, America supplied Pakistan with a batch of F-16 fighter aircraft. The defence pact could facilitate more weapons supply from the US to Pakistan in the coming days.

Despite concerns in some quarters, the status that India now enjoys in the US’s scheme of things will be difficult for Pakistan to match for several years.

Nevertheless, Munir will be encouraged by America not to put all his eggs in the Chinese basket.

However, it will be interesting to see how Munir and Nawaz Sharif get along in future.