So far so good but…

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The views expressed by Imran Khan about civil-military relations would help dispel a growing perception regarding his being the army’s protégé. He says he stands for the supremacy of the civil authority over military and with him as the country’s prime minister, the army and ISI would not be allowed to act without his permission. He argues that weak-kneed governments have been responsible for the erosion of civil authority, encouraging the army and intelligence agencies to create an autonomous niche for themselves. The promise to have the army’s budget audited by a civilian setup would institutionalise a modicum of civilian oversight ensuring transparency in military spending. One fails however to understand why Imran stopped short of promising to bring the defence budget to parliament to examine military demands in the context of overall national priorities.

Imran’s commitment not to allow anyone to use Pakistan’s territory to commit acts of terrorism abroad is equally welcome. Imran inexplicably chose an interview with CNN-IBN to express views on these vital issues instead of saying all this at Minar-e-Pakistan. The views were aired while answering pointed questions that left little room for ambivalence. Combined with his earlier interaction with the BBC Urdu where he claimed that he was a liberal and did not support the terrorists, the CNN-IBN interview would be used by a section of his critics to maintain that, like the leaders of the two major mainstream parties, Imran was also cozying up to the West. Happily though the expression of the views would relieve Imran of some of the extremist ballast he has been carrying with him all along. One hopes Imran would now get rid of the notion that talks alone are the way to rein in the terrorists.

Imran’s statement that he would resign if he failed to establish the supremacy of the civilian authority may go well with the West but would dishearten some of his potential voters. A politician is not supposed to give in when confronted with problems. This is what neither Jinnah nor ZAB, the two leaders mentioned by Imran, would have ever done. “I will never allow this to happen,” would have been a more defiant and inspiring response.

9 COMMENTS

  1. Imran Khan has a clear vision to which direction Pakistan should move. He has adopted persistent stance on issues including terrorism, governance, corruption etc.

  2. Imran may confuse or what ever but he is the best choice for now what we have ppl like Zaradri , Altaf and Shreifs " come on guys Altaf and Zaradri has a same father but different mothers ,Shreifs took all the $$$ ffom Pak , we need to get all the $$$ back from Altaf , Zaradri < Sherif, Chaudrys and other ass holes who are in Pak plitics

  3. Before the start of Shabaz Sharif government Punjab was financially very well off. Now it’s broke and has the highest debt among all provinces. As a chartered accountant, I know there is no better way to hide laundered money then to start a cash based scheme like sasti roti or benazir income support programme. Similarly using sugar mills is an excellant way of legalising laundered money which is why so many of our politicians including Zardari and Nawaz own them.Everybody know that Zardari was convicted by Swiss courts and Musharraf saved him with NRO.MQM is a terrorist organisation. So PTI is only choice.

  4. What Imran said was that he would resign and come back with bigger mandate just like what Erdagon did in Turkey if establishment tries to create hurdles.

  5. Imran is what vast majority of Pakistanis are. We are neither leftist nor rightest. We are moderates.

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