Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Amid a boycott of parliament by Imran Khan’s supporters, who also threatened to resign en masse, Shahbaz Sharif, 70, on Monday got elected unopposed as the next Prime Minister of Pakistan, but Islamabad’s road to political peace may be strewn with fire and thorns.
If the massive, spontaneous, and countrywide support Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi received on Sunday after his ouster as the Prime Minister a day before is anything to go by, the cricketer-turned-politician may yet play the last ball. And hardball against the “imported government” that succeeds him with Sharif Junior in the hot seat.
Within a month, Imran Khan has metamorphosed from being pilloried as a ‘selected’ PM, ever since he took an oath in 2008, into a combative ex-PM. This is rare anywhere. Unlike his inglorious predecessors, he may yet redeem his ‘honor’, and with increased numbers in the coming elections, cocking a snook at his many adversaries.
As the ousted and exiled former PM Nawaz Sharif returns from London in the next few days, his younger brother Shahbaz, who has to prepare for the next polls, may find the going ahead difficult as Pakistan struggles against its many demons, including a financial meltdown.
All 22 Prime Ministers, including Imran, could not complete their five-year term since 1947 in Pakistan. He is also the first PM ousted by a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly. The parliamentary battle he lost to the combined opposition, led by his bête noire Shahbaz Sharif, has, however, put Imran Khan into the electoral battle ahead. And he has hit the road right away.
For the first time in Pakistan, an ousted PM has virtually split the country vertically into pro-and anti-America factions, which may indirectly strengthen China’s role in Pakistan. Ironically, at the center of this political chaos in Pakistan is a Chinese-American diplomat, Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, whom Imran singled out for his ouster.
Imran Khan’s claims that the US hatched a ‘conspiracy’ to dislodge him through the Opposition has touched a raw nerve among millions of Islamist voters who have found in him their political voice. And for the first time, even the Pakistani Army is under a cloud for its pro-US stand.
Enthused with the massive support he received on the roads on Sunday evening, Imran thanked his supporters for their participation in rallies held across Pakistan and abroad to protest against his ouster as the PM and the formation of a “US-backed regime” in Islamabad, the media reported on Monday.
On Imran Khan’s call, thousands of his supporters held protest rallies in different Pakistani cities on Sunday evening, which continued for several hours.
“Thank you to all Pakistanis for their amazing outpouring of support & emotions to protest against US-backed regime change abetted by local Mir Jafars to bring into power a coterie of pliable crooks all out on bail. Shows Pakistanis at home & abroad have emphatically rejected this,” Khan tweeted on Sunday.
Earlier on Sunday, he tweeted that “today marked the beginning of a freedom struggle” against what he insisted was a “foreign conspiracy of regime change” in his country.
To galvanize his supporters, he said “it is always the people who protect their own sovereignty and democracy.”
The vociferous supporters of his party, Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI), including women and children, showed their solidarity with Khan during the rally in Lahore that started at 9 pm on Sunday and lasted till 3 am on Monday, according to the media reports.
The massive outpouring of his supporters’ emotions was on display in Lahore and other parts of the Punjab province, including Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala, Vehari, Jhelum, and Gujrat districts. Islamabad and Karachi also witnessed major gatherings of PTI supporters.
Overseas, his supporters staged demonstrations in Chicago, Dubai, Toronto, and the UK, where they chanted slogans against his rivals and the new government.
They also shouted slogans against his chief rival, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif, his possible successor, against whom Imran fielded former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. The PTI supporters also condemned Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chair Asif Ali Zardari and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman for allegedly plotting against Khan’s government at the behest of the US.
Most placards carried by the protesters read “Imported government is not acceptable.”
This may reflect the mood of Pakistan in the months leading to the next elections.