Titre : Imran Khan "Victory" is a Pakistan Military Win- Again.
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Imran Khan "Victory" is a Pakistan Military Win- Again.
via NPRShamila N. Chaudhary (@ShamilaCh) is senior adviser to the dean at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, a fellow at the school's Foreign Policy Institute and senior fellow at New America. She served as director for Pakistan and Afghanistan on the National Security Council during the Obama administration.
The Pakistani people have spoken. In Wednesday's parliamentary elections, they voted in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), a political party led by former cricket star turned politician Imran Khan, to form the next government. PTI will most likely install Khan as the prime minister.
But have the Pakistani people told us what they want? We can't be sure, and here's why: The campaign environment leading up to the elections was heavily manipulated by pro-PTI forces, namely members of the military, judiciary and the political elite — a collection of powerful individuals and institutions commonly referred to in Pakistan as "the establishment."
The civilians who join forces with the military to achieve its dominance — including a politicized judiciary that historically has been used as a tool to justify the military's extra-constitutional measures — often reap benefits typically reserved for those in uniform.We might call them the "deep state"- Many believe the "deep state" is opposed to Donald Trump. That's a load of nonsense.
We get that idea from the way the media carries on about Mr Trump. Despite the fact that the Donald has carried on the work of those that had come before.
We should understand that the media manages our perceptions. Or it tries to.
Many Pakistanis believe that the establishment is behind the pressure tactics directed against the electorate during this campaign season. In this election season, assassination of candidates, intimidation of the media and the imprisonment of Khan's primary rival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, no doubt silenced critical aspects of the electoral process.
Nawaz suddenly critically ill will surely silence still more voices.
Ousted Pakistani PM Sharif “falls sick in jail” , "seriously ill" Hospitalized. Timing?
As I'd explained in 2017 Mr Sharif was doing a good job of running the economy
Did the media report freely? Were people scared off from voting because of violence and fears of retribution? Did the judiciary's pursuit of corruption charges against Sharif distract from his party's successes in running the government for the past five years? In a place like Pakistan, where a layer of political manipulation by the establishment has clouded every election since the country's birth in 1947, we will never fully know the answers to these questions.
Which is something Mr Sharif had challenged. It's not likely Khan will challenge the military's power.
But we're not meant to. The difficulty of ascertaining what the people want is part of the establishment's plan. It does not want a government led by Imran Khan per se. Rather, it wants a government that is weak and where civilians cannot strengthen themselves against a powerful military, which wants to maintain its influence over national security issues such as relations with India and nuclear proliferation, issues over which civilians in a democracy should have primacy.
So while Imran Khan got the votes in this election, it is Pakistan's military that has won — again.Yes, his colour revolution style of street rhetoric aimed at the young and gullible. Gee, where have I read about that tactic before? The fact that he's a celebrity also plays in his favour.
The military has been cautious about overtly involving itself in politics in the past decade (not correct) — a result of the unpopular legacy of former military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the military's negative exposure in Wikileaks documents and the difficult fight against anti-state militants. But that inclination has steadily receded over the past few years. The Pakistani military is no longer lurking in the shadows. It is walking down Constitution Avenue in Islamabad in broad daylight.
Khan, who can reach millions of Pakistanis in a way that no other politician can, is its newest foil. His popularity as a sportsman is unparalleled and his brash, populist rhetoric appeals to young, working-class voters. What better candidate to break the dominance of the dynastic former ruling party, Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, in Parliament?
Far too many people worship the cult of celebrity. Their new gods
But the legitimacy of Khan's government will undoubtedly be questioned for the duration of his tenure. Ironically, in shaping the political environment to favor Khan, the establishment has effectively handicapped its own candidate.Apparently, I'm a critic of Khan. Well, not exactly. However, a soft coup took place last year. And the military worked hard, alongside the establishment to install Khan. He won't bite the hands that fed him so well.
With Sharif's party sidelined and Khan having to defend his legitimacy, the establishment has taken a page out of a playbook from the 1990s, when the military would pit politicians against each other to ensure weak coalition governments wouldn't unify against military influence. This era ended in 1999, when Musharraf ousted Sharif in a military coup.
The return to 1990s-style party politics has ushered in a backsliding of Pakistan's democratic culture, which begs the question: Could it also eventually lead to another coup? The makings of it are already underway, with Pakistan's politicized judiciary, compromised media, an exhausted and untrusting electorate, and a fractured political elite.
Critics of Khan will say that a soft coup has already happened and with him in place, the military already runs the show. But we must consider what the Pakistani military would do if Khan's government fails to adhere to its expectations. And there will be many opportunities to fail, from determining the imprisoned Sharif's future and rapprochement with India to working with the United States to end the war in Afghanistan.
All this talk of political manipulation distracts from the ambitious agenda Khan has for his vision of the "new Pakistan," a place where the stark divide between the poor and privileged is addressed through a welfare state system. Amidst fraught relations with Pakistan's neighbors and the United States, Khan's government will also need to define its agenda and approach with the international community. The hardest part will be how Khan refashions himself as a unifying figure who can bring together the political parties who believe his victory is a sham.Khan won't have to be a real and true unifying figure. That's not what is desired.
Observation; I had no idea there were so many supporters of military dictatorships in the alternative sphere- but life is for learning and I learn something new every single day
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