By Atul Aneja New Delhi, Aug 11 in Pakistan an ally state at the gate of Central and West Asia, the stage is set for a major purge that targets Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister.
Over the years , the former premier was able to establish strong networks of influence in the military as well as radical Islamist organizations as well as within the media and civil society institutions of the state and also an influential segment of the civil society.
In the last couple of days, a unified effort appears to have been initiated by a hybrid combination of the highest military officials personally directed by the Army Chief, Qamar Javed Bajwa, and the new government headed by the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to eliminate supporters of Imran from the political system.
The first evident indication of the purge was when Lieutenant.Gen.Faiz Hameed, known as a close associate of Khan was removed as the commander of the Peshawar located XI corps and transferred to Bahawalpur.The move was Gen.Hameed’s second major move.He was previously dismissed as the head of the potent Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)-a position that Khan wanted him to fill.General.Hamid was moved to Peshawar.However, he was still charged with the primary responsibility of facilitating an open dialogue, with tribal mediators and the Afghan Taliban, with the Tehreek-et-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or the Pakistan Taliban.
The TTP was running unrest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, helped by the presence of many of high-ranking officials who were released from prison following the Taliban took over in Kabul on the 15th of August last year.
Hameed’s departure was in conjunction with an enormous IED explosion that killed the TTP’s top four leaders on Sunday including the most powerful Maulvi Omar Khalid Khansani.It appears that all bridges for the continuation of talks have been destroyed with the strikes, as well as Gen.Hameed’s participation in peace talks was, in almost all cases, removed.
He is known for his hatred of Christians, Khorasani was on the list of drones of the Americans who had offered an amount of $3 million for alive or dead reward on his head.
Following Hameed’s transfer, the anti-Imran purge was intensified.
On Tuesday Khan’s trusted lieutenant Shahbaz Gill was arrested and accused with sedition.If charges are substantiated, he could face the death penalty.
This will cause a lot of fears among Khan’s most prominent supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party which Khan was the former prime minister’s head.
The knives are ready to Gill because he almost demanded a revolution within the military establishment during a debate on the pro-Imran ARY TV channel.
It is likely that the outcome of Gill’s inquiry will close the loop around Khan and make Gill the “mastermind” of the “seditious” remarks.”The remarks were made according to the script that was written under the direction of PTI Chairman Imran Khan which was carried forward by the former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry as well as Gill,” the interior minister Rana Sanaullah said, during the press conference.
The current purge could result in at least three major ramifications.The first is that the demise of Khan as well as the PTI is likely to create an insurgency that can be anticipated to be filled by the anti-Khan group-a process that could be ended with the return out of London of the exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is backed by a trimmed military that was designed by Gen.Bajwa.
In the second, with the predominant pro-western administration in the power structure, US influence in Pakistan is likely to grow.
It is likely that the military will support the shift, given that Gen.Bajwa enjoys excellent ties with the West.Actually, Pak media reports suggest that, at the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s demand Gen.Bajwa called the US Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, requesting her to facilitate the earlier release of the $1.2 billion first installment of the IMF loan that cash-strapped Pakistan desperately requires.Additionally, three days before the terror leader Ayman Al Zawahiri was killed by a missile of hellfire in Kabul on July 31st Gen.Bajwa was on the phone with US Central Command Chief General Michael Erik Kurilla, leading to speculation that the Pak military was coordinating with the Americans the fatal drone strike.
Third the purge is negative for the Chinese who’s CPEC projects will likely suffer particularly since the IMF is likely to examine the project’s details and pick gaps in them, and then part with the loans.
As of now, News International website is reporting that the China-built Dasu hydropower project’s first stage with the capacity of producing 2160 MW of hydel energy is put off by 3 years and resulted in costs overruns of 100 billion rupees.
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–indianarrative
