Karan Thapar

Is Imran Khan Pakistan’s prime minister or a puppet?

When Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan handed the country’s army chief, general Qamar Javed Bajwa, a three-year extension on Monday, press reports didn’t tell the full story. The true picture is very revealing of Khan’s own position and shows how his views have changed dramatically.

To start with, this was no simple extension for a man appointed to Pakistan’s most powerful position. That would suggest Bajwa’s term of office had been increased by a limited period. In fact, general Bajwa was given a full second term. The official notification from the prime minister’s office makes this clear:

“Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa is appointed Chief of Army Staff for another term of three years from the date of completion of current tenure”.

Yet in 2010, when one of general Bajwa’s predecessors, general Kayani, was given a similar ‘extension’ Imran Khan strongly and publicly criticised the decision. This is what he said at the time to Pakistan’s Express News Channel:

“No general or judge should get an extension because it will weaken the respective organisation…even during the time of the First and Second World Wars, nobody was given any extension. When you are breaking the law you destroy institutions…when you change the laws for an individual, it weakens the entire institution”.

These were arguments based on sound democratic and governance principles. They were hard to disagree with. So how does the justification for giving general Bajwa a second tenure compare with these arguments?

Monday’s statement from Khan’s office says: “The decision has been taken in view of the regional security environment”, which, presumably, means the deteriorating India-Pakistan situation and the disturbed and fragile environment in Afghanistan.

Yet in November 2016, when general Bajwa took over, the first cross-border surgical strikes by India had just happened, creating uncertainty and concern on the border, while Nawaz Sharif’s position as prime minister was weakening by the day.

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