Struggle against former premier could weaken Pakistan’s all-powerful military
Editor’s Note: This piece by Benny Avni features quotes from CSP Senior Fellow Grant Newsham.
Pakistan’s latest imbroglio involving a former prime minister, Imran Khan, could end up weakening the military, the only institution that has kept a semblance of order in the nuclear-armed, geostrategically located, perennially chaotic country.
The country’s supreme court ruled on Thursday that the populist opposition leader had illegally been arrested two days earlier, and ordered his immediate release. Mr. Khan, who faces a number of corruption charges that he claims are politically motivated, must still stand trial.
A paramilitary group conducted the dramatic arrest on Tuesday. In ordering Mr. Khan’s release, the high court’s chief justice, Umar Ata Bandial, complained on Thursday that nearly a hundred troops entered the court at Islamabad to make the arrest even after Mr. Kahn had already surrendered. “What dignity remains of the court if 90 people entered its premises? How can any individual be arrested from court premises?” Mr. Bandial said.
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Pakistan is “chaotic. It’s an absolute mess. A near failed state, and it will be a mess 50 years from now, ” a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy, Grant Newsham, tells the Sun. “The civilian government is weak, inept, and fragile. The military is the one power that counts.” Yet, he adds, “now the military is challenged.”
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For America, Pakistan’s latest challenge presents a dilemma. “America got in bed with Pakistan decades ago, and we have no idea how to get out of it,” Mr. Newsham, a retired Marine colonel, says. The country and its military have never been true allies. They built up Islamist extremist groups, hosted Osama bin Laden, cultivated deep hatred of India, and allied with Communist China.
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