By announcing that it has decided to act against its own senior officers, Pakistan’s all-powerful Army establishment has made it clear former Prime Minister Imran Khan and the movement launched by his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party had considerable and high-ranking support from even within its ranks. In a break from precedent, the Army announced on Monday that three senior officers, including a Lieutenant Governor, had been sacked while 15 officers, including three major-generals and seven brigadiers, face disciplinary action for the events of 9 May, when PTI supporters forced their way into cantonments and ransacked properties to protest the arrest of Mr. Khan.
These actions came on the recommendations of two high-level inquiry committees ~ each headed by a Major-General ~ formed to examine “each and every detail of the attacks” on army property. A military spokesman has confirmed that action is not restricted to serving officers, but to close relatives of two retired four-star generals, a retired three-star general and three retired two-star generals, all of whom were facing what were called strict “self-accountability proceedings”. The involvement of so many senior officers would suggest that mid-ranking and junior officers loyal to them would at the very least also have been sympathetic to the PTI cause. If so, this is cause for serious concern even if Pakistan’s authorities have for now announced no action against them, possibly to ensure that an extensive crackdown does not cause a breakdown of morale. But the action that has been announced suggests Pakistan’s army establishment faces a severe crisis of confidence, one it is trying to address by initiating action that can only be termed ruthless.
The simultaneous attacks on as many as 20 military installations from Rawalpindi to Lahore and from Peshawar to Multan, as admitted by a spokesman, were unprecedented, and were reported to be the handiwork of “three to four masterminds and ten to twelve planners”. The army is said to be trying 102 people in military courts for the May 9 violence, actions that have been severely criticised by human rights groups.
By making public just how widespread the resentment against the establishment was, the Army may well have opened a can of worms. While a political solution to Pakistan’s problems is nowhere in sight, and a cloud of uncertainty hangs over elections due in a few months, it seems likely that the deep state, aided by some political parties, is determined to ensure that the status quo which accords primacy to the Army in the scheme of things is not disturbed. Top leaders of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) are meeting to hammer out an arrangement which ensures they remain in power, while keeping Mr. Khan’s outfit out of the political equation. The parleys being held in Dubai must have the Army’s blessings and involve Mr. Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister Shahbez Sharif and Ms. Mariyam Sharif, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari and Mr. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.
How Pakistan’s people, sullen, discomfited and reeling from serial economic disasters, view these machinations is open to question.