Ever since Mohammad Ali Durrani began running his political errands, hopes rose that a rapprochement between Imran Khan and the high command might be in the offing, and a subsiding of pain in which Pakistan was convulsed might be in sight. But on sober reflection it becomes clear that what we saw as rising hopes was actually a case of settling dust.
The hope of reconciliation between the two is just not possible. The reason for this is that the high command just CANNOT accept the possibility of seeing Imran Khan back in power. And they would therefore like Imran Khan to sign on to a formula whereby he would voluntarily rule himself out of the next elections. Their preference is that he leave the country. Even better that he left the terrestrial world!
But Imran has proved to be “intransigent”. He is not behaving the way a politician is supposed to behave. Instead of lying down and turning over, he is prepared to stare down the high command. And if he sweeps the elections, which is now generally accepted will be the case, the expectation is that he will try the high command. This, not only for their treachery against the state, but also for a huge number of other serious crimes instigated, or committed directly by them, beginning with regime change to the May 9 farce and beyond.
And these crimes are brutal, mindless, and many.
The high command is therefore driven by only one impulse: to save their skins. And if this means taking Pakistan down in the process, so be it. The meaning of patriotism therefore stands redefined: my own skin comes first and every time; the state and the constitution can go to hell.
So much for all the prayers they offer, the ayats they quote at the drop of a hat, and all their free Haj trips.
So there will either be no elections, or the high command will take measures to ensure that Imran Khan is ruled out of the electoral process. Or they will have him murdered. Self-preservation leaves them no other choice. And they are men of demonstrated commitment. And there you have a revolutionary new definition of a playing field “levelled” out to deliver “free and fair” elections which would go a long way to bringing about political stability to Pakistan.
This would be like staging Hamlet in which the part played by the Prince is already ruled out! But none in the audience will notice the missing prince!
This should tell you how reserves of inexhaustible stupidity have been expended so fast! The forces of the high command and those of Imran Khan stand arrayed as follows:
In the center stands the high command with their bandits and their thugs. Their rear is guarded by the U.S and its allies. And in front of them stand half a million men with rifles at the ready and with bayonets fixed.
These last have a tradition of giving their lives for the state which they have valiantly defended for decades. But a mixture of fate and discipline have willed it so, that today they have been deployed to attack the very state they have defended so long and so selflessly.
And here lies a crucial weakness. Such bayonets have been known in history to have turned around. Insensitive generalship can make this happen. Insensitivity and incompetence is an even more lethal combination, capable of achieving the impossible.
On the other side stands Imran Khan with the people of Pakistan behind him. And covering one flank stand a few judges like Babar Sattar armed only with their pens and their conscience. On the other stands the Constitution.
The people at large care for democracy only insofar as this is the only avenue by which Imran Khan can come back to power. And they want him back primarily because they detest the bandits and the thugs. And what they despise even more is being bullied, kicked around, and treated like cattle by the high command and its cohorts.
It is only the bayonets which make the contest unequal, almost one sided.
But just a few moves on the chess board could alter this imbalance. Should the much vaunted unpredictability of Justice Qazi Faez Isa incline him to emerge from the shadows, bring along with him his faction of the judiciary, and stand firmly by Pakistan, it will become the only time in our history that judges armed with pens will defeat generals armed with rifles and “topes”.
And much bloodshed shall be avoided.
Otherwise, the spark already kindled in KPK will take to flame, and then to a blaze. What will emerge from this is a free Pakistan, or a Pakistan ruined beyond mending.
At all events the high command shall never win. No army deployed to beat down the will of its own people, ever has.