Imran Khan and the legacy of a complex game

A Pakistani prime minister has rarely been able to complete his rule, in a turbulent country, in which the military and politicians have shared power over his short history since his separation from India in 1947. The Pakistani, in such an atmosphere, is an anti-American trade, and the politician will not find it difficult to use it.

I remember now when Benazir Bhutto was dismissed from the prime ministership in 1993 after the country's then president, Farouk Laghari, deposed it in accordance with his powers based on his conviction of her inability and failure to rule.

I was meeting her that day at her home in the center of the capital, Islamabad, and she immediately told me that I was fired by the American company Unocol, on the grounds that there was friction, conflict, and a race between this American company and the Argentine Bridas company to transport Turkmen gas to Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Far East.

The Pakistani army is angry at Imran Khan since he extended to the current army commander without referring to him as required by the customary protocols, which meant that he wanted to be independent from the army, and the anger doubled in his public and clear declaration of support for the Taliban movement, thus stirring up the Pashtun traditions of which he is a part And he took advantage of this to push towards China in retaliation against America

Benazir Bhutto had carefully chosen her words. She did not hold America directly responsible, but rather her company. She knows the importance of the American factor in Pakistani politics, as it is in all global politics. And perhaps to her party, but this was unlike Imran Khan, the international cricketer, who is new to Pakistani politics, and new to the world of international rivalries. .

Of course, Imran Khan may have satisfied his conscience today, but certainly his coming to power in mid-2018 would not have happened without the army’s support, in the face of politicians rooted in Pakistani political and social life, but Imran Khan’s departure from the army, which sees itself as the protector of the country during His last reign, specifically with regard to his foreign policy, prompted the army to brake the steps of Imran Khan, who flew on the same day that Vladimir Putin announced the invasion of Ukraine, to appear with him in the same image, as if encouraging him to invade.

This angered Western circles, and certainly angered the Pakistani army, which has historical bitterness in dealing with Russia since its occupation of Afghanistan, and it knows full well that it will not forgive it for standing with the Afghan Mujahideen in the eighties, and for causing the division of the Soviet Union, which Pakistan still holds responsible for.

Imran Khan had taken an economically advanced step towards China, while the Pakistani military leadership is seeking to walk a very tight thread that America and China have ended, and therefore it is a tight and meticulous balance between them. His elites are dependent on the West and this camp cannot be easily abandoned, nor can it be angered.

The slogans raised by the Pakistani opposition in all its segments from the far right to the far left in the face of Imran Khan, specifically with regard to inflation, high prices and the collapse of the national currency, are all slogans that the whole world suffers from, and there is no country in this world far from it, inflation in developed countries is perhaps greater than in Pakistan, but such slogans are used for the sake of the ordinary citizen, while hiding an internal game with the Pakistani army on the side, and an external game with China, Russia and America on its sides.

The Pakistani army is angry at Imran Khan since he extended to the current army commander without referring to him as required by the customary protocols, which meant that he wanted to be independent from the army, and the anger doubled in his public and clear declaration of support for the Taliban movement, thus stirring up the Pashtun traditions of which he is a part And he took advantage of this to push towards China in retaliation against America, and this was met with the refusal of US President Joe Biden more than once to answer his phone calls, and he refused even to communicate with him, and it is known the repercussions of such a step on Pakistani policy, specifically the economic arena, which is in need mainly and fundamentally of American support. Western, in particular.

What worries Pakistani military and political circles is that Imran Khan’s policy will end with America, and go towards China and Russia, to bet on losing horses, which means that the country will fall into the arms of the Russian-Chinese-Iranian axis of tyranny, to be cut off from the Western axis, which entails a dangerous reorientation of policy Pakistan, with all its political, military, economic, social, and even psychological types, which no one is able to do under these circumstances, which prompted the army to intervene, to convince all parties to dissolve Parliament and head to early elections, and Imran Khan will certainly not be the winner.

And such a solution relieved the United States of America, whose delegate Zalmay Khalilzad was in Islamabad at the moment of its announcement, because the other option, which is withholding confidence in him in Parliament, would prove Imran Khan’s theory that America was the one who brought him down, but now it appears that the solution that Imran agreed to Khan, by completely dissolving Parliament and going to early elections, so that his certain defeat in the upcoming elections will be the result of the people and not the action of America, and we all know the transparency of elections in such circumstances.