Having won Pakistan’s national election, believed to have been stage-managed by the military, Imran Khan appears to have gone on overdrive to buttress his equation with the omnipotent army. It is difficult to recall a prospective Prime Minister visiting the GHQ in Rawalpindi ahead of the elections, and then following it up with a visit to the headquarters of the country’s premier spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence. There is a pattern in the evolving developments. The army had lent its tacit support even before the first vote was cast, exemplified with the chief, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s presence at the swearing-in ceremony and his bonhomie with Mr Khan’s sole invitee from India. Unwittingly or otherwise, the new Prime Minister has now conveyed the impression that his agenda is likely to be influenced more by the soldier and less by his civilian aides.

Though the people of Pakistan and the rest of South Asia have been kept guessing over what transpired during the eight-hour interaction, the duration of the meeting is suggestive of its incisive nature though the subjects raised can only be speculated upon. Of riveting interest are India and Afghanistan though neither the ISI nor the Pakistan PM’s office could be expected to be explicit on the issue. Both were suitably cautious not to go beyond the rather generic “internal and external challenges being faced by the country”.

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Nonetheless, it is a measure of the importance that the government has attached to the meeting that it prompted an official handout by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), one that has underlined the Prime Minister’s fulsome praise of the spy agency, which is alleged to have had a hand in the Mumbai carnage on 26 November 2008. In parallel, yet another statement has been advanced by the civilian government, echoing the Prime Minister’s compliments to the ISI ~ “our first line of defence and it stands out as the best intelligence agency of the world”. For all that, Mr Khan cannot be impervious to the ISI’s potential to destabilise the geopolitical architecture. Markedly, the team that accompanied the Prime Minister to the ISI headquarters was almost the same that had visited the GHQ with the Tehreek-i-Insaf leader on August 30. During his visit to the GHQ, Mr Khan had “reposed confidence” in the army; last Wednesday he expressed similar sentiments in respect of the ISI.

For all that, the Prime Minister needs to craft his own agenda, indeed to dispel the growing impression that he is but a puppet on the military string. Of course as head of government, he is entitled to visit another government establishment. Yet there can be no compromise on the inbuilt independence of the Prime Minister of Pakistan or indeed any other country. Decidedly proximate have been his relations with the military. Is it really necessary? Pakistan being Pakistan, the crease can be treacherous.