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OpINION DECEMBER 17, 2021 | The Indian Eye 13

dents to ascertain 221 votes versus 203 itant religious groups of other hues
votes from the opposition, with the to rally popular support to extract
rest 16 opposition members failing similar concessions from the state in
to attend because of various reasons. future. In fact, the news of talks with
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fol-
the government is also busy lowed negotiations with TLP. There
was a claim that the Afghan Taliban
bringing out old skeletons from were mediating these talks between
the cupboard to taint the oppo- the Pakistan military and TTP. There
were reports that the TTP had as-
sition and divert public atten- sured to cooperate if its members

tion from Saqib nisar tapes. were released. In an atmosphere
of competitive radicalism, such dis-
the now-leaked audiotapes of counts may only complicate matters
Maryam, nawaz’s daughter, is further for the state. The TTP con-
tinues with its narratives against the
a case in point. in the tape, she state and especially the army. The

is heard giving out instructions more the state capitulates, the more
the religious militant constituency in
not to give government adver- Militant groups are becoming more vocal and violent Pakistan is likely to get emboldened
tisements to three news chan- to toe the line of Afghan Taliban.
There are many columnists in Paki-
nels (92 news, Channel 24 and stani vernacular newspapers to glori-

ary), while nawaz Sharif’s par- fy Taliban victory and the method of
resistance they adopted to defeat the
ty pMl-n was in power. powerful Americans!

While the leaked tapes are be- iMpliCationS
ing debated, Imran Khan found time As the civilian political space
for a tele-interview6 with American shrinks and the capacity of the state
scholar Shaykh Hamza Yusuf to get hobbled by political dissension
dwell on his spiritual journey as a and internal resistance from forces
Muslim! The issue of IMF-imposed armed with an alternate blueprint
economic reforms and rising infla- for action, Pakistan is likely to rely
tion leading the opposition to stage more on its anti-India stance to build
Mehangai March have been pushed national unity, seeking especially to
out of the news headlines as the pub- suck in the militant religious groups
lic is hooked onto forensic debates into its orbit. Such diversionary tac-
on past politics.
tic to divert their attention towards
India on the one hand could be used
Civil–Military tanGo: on as a potent weapon both to keep In-
or over? Terror groups in Kashmir may get more support from across the border dia engaged internally, on the other.
Imran Khan Government is Therefore, it is springtime for all an-
often called the ideal hybrid gov- Imran Khan. Even the matter was Imran a natural ally. Therefore, the ti-India propaganda in the vernacu-
lar media in Pakistan today. There is
ernment that the political system of hushed up rather early, the gos- civil–military relations may remain a competition among commentators
Pakistan has thrown up as a synthesis sip-mills in Pakistan were rife with intact for the time being, with the and newspapers/news channels to
between (civilian) democracy and its stories of the establishment looking Imran Khan Government willing to outshout and outshine one another
antithesis, (military) dictatorship— for Imran’s successor. The moderate play second fiddle on matters con- in their bid to show India in the poor-
perhaps unique to Pakistan and or- stance taken by Bilawal Bhutto and cerning foreign and security policies est of light. It can be a temporary pal-
dained to last for some time, in the Shehbaz Sharif to warm up to the of the state. liative for Pakistan, not a panacea for
absence of unity of political forces army was being paraded as proof that the multiple existential problems it is
to rein in the men in khaki. There there was something going on behind Military–Militant uneaSy confronted with.
were rumors in the country in recent the scene. There were even rumors
times that the bond between Imran that the military had felt the pulse of equationS Ashok K. Behuria is Senior Fellow at
and his uniformed mentors is getting the people which was definitely turn- It was not a mere coincidence Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense
weaker by the day and they were no ing against Imran Khan and it was on that the day Imran Khan chose to Studies and Analyses, New Delhi.
longer on the same page. There were the lookout for the most obliging po- bulldoze his bills, the Tehreek-e-Lab- Views expressed are of the author and
hypotheses that the army may not be litical leader from the opposition in baik (TLP) leader Saad Hussain do not necessarily reflect the views of
able to cohabit the power-scape with the coming elections in 2023. Rizvi walked free as per the secret the Manohar Parrikar IDSA or of the
a maverick like Imran for too long. However, the fall-out of the agreement between the TLP and Government of India.
In fact, Khan had raised the Nisar tapes seems to have been to the government. It was termed as a
heckle about the military’s unilateral the benefit of the Imran Khan Gov- tame ‘surrender’ by analysts in Pa- This is the abridged version of the
decision to replace former ISI chief ernment. The military, cornered by kistan. The surrender of the State article which appeared first in the
Faiz Hameed with Nadeem Ahmed the Nisar tapes and demands from to the Barelvi TLP, which was earli- Comment section of the website (www.
Anjum, leading to speculations that Maryam to investigate as to who er used by the army to disgrace and idsa.in) of Manohar Parrikar Institute
it would lead to further tensions be- were the people pressurizing Nisar discredit the PML-N government, for Defense Studies and Analyses, New
tween the powerful deep-state and to convict Nawaz, is likely to find in must have sent wrong signals to mil- Delhi on December 6, 2021

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