The announcement over the weekend that Pakistan’s National Assembly would be dissolved on 9 August ~ with fresh elections to be held within a maximum of 90 days thereafter ~ followed a day later by news of the conviction and arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan has set the political stage in a country where democracy has often been seen to stutter, and the Army has cast a long shadow on the poll process. Mr. Khan’s conviction in what is called the toshakhana case will see him serve a three-year jail term, and effectively exclude him from the election unless a higher court intervenes.

He was charged with retaining gifts received by him in his capacity as Prime Minister and was prosecuted on a complaint by the Election Commission of Pakistan which accused him of a corrupt practice by submitting false details. Corrupt as the practice was ~ Mr Khan is said to have taken away wrist watches worth Pakistan Rs 96.6 million, after paying the exchequer about Rs 21 million ~ the former Prime Minister was only doing something that had been institutionalised by his predecessors, and his crime pales into insignificance when compared with their shenanigans.

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According to details made public last March, quite the most serious assault on the toshakhana ~ the repository for state gifts ~ was made by former President Asif Ali Zardari, who retained almost all the 182 gifts he received, and drove off with a Lexus and a BMW, for which he paid a fraction of the value. The other member of the uneasy alliance that rules Pakistan, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) also dipped into the toshakana with regularity. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif kept back many of the gifts he received, including a bulletproof vehicle and expensive watches. General Parvez Musharraf and his family walked away with more than six dozen gifts including a car, and even Mr. Shaukat Aziz, who was Prime Minister for about three years, took away a Lexus.

The method employed was simple and common to all these worthies ~ under-declare the value of the gift and walk away with it. Mr. Khan would under the circumstances be entitled to feel indignant at having been singled out. But there is not much he can do about it. With many of his colleagues in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party having deserted him after it became clear that the establishment would be relentless in its crackdown on those responsible for the May 9 attacks on Army installations, and with Mr. Khan now behind bars, the party’s hopes of gathering support from a populace disgruntled by economic woes and burgeoning inflation lie in tatters. Those who deserted Mr. Khan have found a new home in a party founded by a millionaire businessman. But they and others who make up the political establishment are a discredited lot. The Pakistani military must be enjoying a quiet chuckle at the drama it has scripted.