ISLAMABAD - The country’s politics is abuzz with the words of ‘Mr X’ and ‘Mr Y’ for the past couple of months since former prime minister Imran Khan, while using such oblique terms, has been firing warning shots at his opponents in public rallies.
At a recent public gathering of his party in Bahawalnagar, the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Khan again referring to ‘Mr X’ and ‘Mr Y’ had said that these characters were leading an effort to topple his party’s coalition government in Punjab. He claimed that some unknown people were making threatening calls to PTI lawmakers belonging to Punjab Assembly to force them to change their loyalties.
Khan repeated his allegations in his last Monday’s rally in Chakwal but this time appeared frustrated and went a step ahead, telling his followers to respond to such threatening calls from unknown phone numbers in the same manner and hurl threats to such people in return. His remarks generated a heated debate on social media.
Despite the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz in her media interaction has asked the PTI chief to disclose identities of ‘Mr X’ and ‘Mr Y’, it is no more a secret that he is referring to the powerful military establishment.
Political analyst Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi says that Khan is definitely talking about intelligence agencies but for different reasons. He said that the strength of chairman PTI is his popular support and in such a situation, a leader has to talk radical to keep his supporters intact. “As long as Khan has popular support, he will continue to talk like this.”
Rizvi said that Khan was actually trying to build pressure on the powers-that-be by using such vague expressions and to get leverage in politics.
Pakistan’s military establishment has always denied the allegations that it was either involved in politics or any maneuverings making or breaking the governments. However, the country’s all major political parties including the PML-N, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) at their respective turns have been blaming the institution of political engineering.