Imran Khan seems to have a special relationship with the army chiefs. Once he adored Gen Zia who wanted him to join politics. Gen Mujibur Rehman, the Secretary of Information and Broadcasting, and Gen Hameed Gul, during the Zia era, tried to provide him the mentorship. Gen Hameed Gul was part of the launch team of the PTI when Imran Khan launched his PTI in 1996. Three years later, in October 1999, when Gen Pervez Musharraf removed the elected government of Nawaz Sharafi after the Kargil debacle, Imran Khan was quick to celebrate it. Three years later, when Gen Pervez Musharraf conducted his fraud referendum, Imran Khan not only supported it but he was the Chief Polling Agent of the General. Imran Khan was very much willing to become Gen Pervez Musharraf’s Prime Minister, had the General accepted his demand to throw 100 National Assembly seats in his lap in the October 2002 elections. His acrimony with Gen Musharraf started only after the General snubbed him and denied him the century of National Assembly seats. In 2002, Imran who somehow got a single seat, actually supported Maulana Fazal Rehman for the election of the Prime Minister.

Imran Khan who boycotted 2008 elections, remained engaged with the brass and was supported by Gen Shuja Pasha and later by Gen Zaheerul Islam. In 2011 Chaudhry Pervez Elahi actually complained and provided evidence to then COAS Gen Kayani how Gen Pasha was persuading PML-Q people to join the PTI. Later Gen Zaheerul Islam himself admitted that he supported Imran Khan. Fast forward 2018 elections, there is a preponderance of evidence suggesting how Imran Khan was catapulted to become the Prime Minister. Till 2021, Imran Khan was all praise for the military establishment, especially for the then COAS Gen Bajwa. Imran and his cabinet ministers said he was the most democratic General they had seen in their lives, likened him to the family head and eagerly extended his tenure for another three years by changing the army act in January 2020. Imran has admitted that even in the wee hours of his government in 2022 when he was facing no confidence, he offered life time extension to Gen Bajwa.

Given this backdrop it is definitely interesting to look into his toxic and venomous personal attacks, first against his benefactor Gen Bajwa and later his personalized attacks against current COAS Gen Asim Munir. In case of Gen Bajwa, it is more like the love turning into hate. When after 2021 the establishment refused to carry Imran regime’s weight and refused to do political management for him, he started acting like a spoiled brat. His insistence on keeping Gen Faiz Hameed beyond his stipulated time as the DG ISI just to ensure his role as the political manager and later forcing the military establishment to keep his allies glued to him and defeat the no-confidence motion made his relationship from worse to worst. Imran’s annoyance with Gen Asim Munir goes way back to June 2019 when the General provided the evidence of corruption of his current wife Bushra to Imran. Gen Asim Munir was removed unceremoniously from his tenure position with only 8 months in office. When the PDM government under Shehbaz Sharif was contemplating to appoint the new COAS to replace Gen Bajwa, Imran Khan made frantic efforts to persuade the government to appoint anybody but Gen Asim Munir in November 2022. Imran Khan continued attacking and delegitimizing the office of the current COAS Gen Asim Munir using his troll brigade both inside and outside Pakistan. May 9, last year was the climax point when his party leaders both inside and outside Pakistan made serious effort to create rebellion within the armed forces aimed at targeting the COAS, besides attacking military installations across Pakistan. In the last year, since his incarceration in multiple criminal cases, Imran Khan has focused on the army chief, rightly called the “center of gravity” of the military establishment by veteran journalist and commentator Syed Talat Hussain. The grapevine says some people were sounding out the establishment for any thaw between him, his party that now rules Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and has good representation in Punjab, National Assembly and the Senate. Sources say, when Imran got the wink of it, he, all of a sudden ratcheted up the pressure by making extreme personal attacks against Gen Asim Munir, to new heights thinking that the new pressure will yield in new concessions.

Incarcerated Imran couldn’t be faultier in his judgment than this one. His recent bravado targeting Gen Asim Munir has effectively sealed his fate. As soon as the decision on the military court trial goes through, either through a military court or through an anti-terrorist court, he and his thunder squad who attacked military installations last May, will be punished along with other criminal cases in a speedy manner. As soon as his conviction process is completed, his media shenanigans and attacks will cease. If there was any chance of any window opening for him, Imran Khan has slammed it shut for good.

Murtaza Solangi
The writer is a journalist who recently served as the Minister for Information, Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs in the caretaker government. He is on X as @murtazasolangi