Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday told a rally in Lower Dir that Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had asked him not to call PDM chief Maualana Fazlur Rehman ‘Maulana Diesel’. He then, what his base would see as a fine independence of spirit by proceeding to call the Maulana ‘Maulana Diesel’, said he had told General Bajwa that he had only followed what people were saying about the Maulana. Mr Khan might think that that passed for humour, but it showed how he wanted the Army back in politics; apparently to back him in the no-confidence motion he is facing at the hands of the opposition. He also said to the rally that only animals remained neutral, and human beings choose between good and evil. Considering that ISPR Director General Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar had said just days earlier that the Army would remain neutral in this, he was clearly signaling the Army that it would be an animal if it remained neutral. How the military responded to having its neutrality thus thrown in its face is not known.
Mr Khan’s equation of himself with good and those trying to oust him as evil would have its mirror image in the opposition, which claims that the country’s problems are caused by his having been given power. However, it is still surprising that Mr Khan wants interference on his behalf. The neutrality of the armed forces in any struggle for power, is supposed to be desirable, and any attempt to distract them from their onerous task of defending the country’s borders is not just unconstitutional but also unwise. Mr Khan must also keep in mind that the wholly public way in which he disclosed what had passed between himself and General Bajwa (in a public rally, not because of a leaked phone recording or some such putatively private context) was also not particularly conducive to the defence of the country.
Mr Khan must learn to guard his tongue, but more importantly, he must remember that where he has avoided dragging in the military, despite so many taunts from the opposition, he should keep up the effort, and not seek to bring back the military into politics, even though it has announced categorically its withdrawal. He should not forget that if the motion against him is defeated, his own remarks will make it appear he did not do it off his own bat.
