But the timing is odd
Being critical of the army is pretty much a no go area for politicians. Zardari practically had to flee the country during ex-COAS Raheel Sharif’s term after lashing out at the military for overstepping its domain back in 2015. Since being ousted Nawaz Sharif is also sticking it to the army every chance he gets albeit cautiously without being too direct about it. Imran Khan is relatively much more cautious in the matter, which is why, it was surprising and confusing that during an interview he accused a retired Brigadier and ex-MI official of aiding Nawaz Sharif in rigging the 2013 General Elections.
With General Elections only months away and all sorts of unnatural political events transpiring on an almost daily basis leading up to them the timing of Khan’s claims is odd. No stranger to foot in mouth moments perhaps Khan misspoke and just went with it. Likely but then he would not have gone on to explain in detail how the rigging actually took place and that the COAS at the time Kayani had no idea about it – very hard to believe that the top military leadership would be unaware of something as serious as the army meddling in elections. There is a method in this madness: With Nawaz Sharif wasting no opportunity to label Imran an “agent of the establishment” the latter had no option to respond in kind.
But why beat a dead horse to achieve that? The 2013 elections were deemed largely fair by a commission headed by the CJ at the time on Khan’s insistence. Apart from giving a valid shut-up call to Khan by rubbishing the allegations the ex-MI official Ranjha has asked for evidence and suggested the formation of another commission to probe rigging in the 2013 elections. Political sparring is the name of the game but Khan habitually takes it one step further by hurling serious allegations without much evidence to back them up. As the leader of a party that won the second most votes in the previous General Elections he should show more restraint.