Dwindling electoral numbers and allies may force Imran Khan’s hand today
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s day of reckoning has arrived as he will try to showcase peoples’ power in his support at an Islamabad rally today against the electoral numbers odd his government faces in the national assembly if the no-confidence motion moved by combined opposition is carried out.
Reports reaching from Pakistan political circles suggest that PM Khan may even resign after addressing what is expected to be a fiery rant against the Opposition this afternoon and ride on the perceived public sympathy for him and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf party. Imran Khan has termed March 27 as a decisive day in Pakistan’s history where the public will stand up against the Opposition for “looting and plundering” the country. The Opposition marches reach Islamabad tomorrow.
With electoral numbers clearly stacked up against him, Pakistan watchers believe that PM Khan may ride out in glory before the assembled crowds and not face the humiliation of a no-confidence motion in the national assembly. While PM Khan may call for snap polls to cash in on sympathetic voters, the Pakistan Constitution does not allow for the incumbent PM to be the caretaker for the next polls. There is also a strong possibility that action will be taken against Imran Khan in the foreign funding case.
Fact is that the reverse wing bowler who was elected with the support of the Pakistani deep state and Rawalpindi GHQ and on the promise of delivering “Naya Pakistan”, Imran Khan has pushed the country into an economic abyss with little to show on foreign policy. There is internal strife within a highly radicalized society with separatist movements building up in Baluchistan and Sindh due to the ham-handed approach of Islamabad. Even a supposedly friendly Taliban regime in Kabul has not been able to buy peace for Rawalpindi with ideological affiliate Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group. Just like the Baluch and Sindh groups, the TTP is launching attacks across the international border against the Pakistan Army and security forces.
Clearly seeing the end of the electoral road for himself, PM Khan has been taking potshots at his own creator, the Pakistan Army, by praising the Indian Army for not being corrupt and ranting at Army Chief General Qamar Jawed Bajwa for remaining neutral to the current political flux.
On the international front, PM Khan has alienated himself from the west by criticizing the US from Beijing as if to appease his handlers in China. His poorly timed visit to Moscow on the day President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24 was perhaps the last straw.
The Pakistan economy is crippled under foreign debt with a pathetic USD 15 billion as foreign reserve, dwindling rupee and owes one fifth (USD 18 billion) of its external debt to iron brother China. While China has agreed to roll over USD 4.2 billion debt to Pakistan this week, the Islamic Republic, like Sri Lanka, is under the vice-like grip of Beijing which does not believe in free meals to even client states.
While the D-Chowk rally in Islamabad begins around 11 am (depending on the crowd), the countdown to Imran Khan’s exit has already begun.