By hoisting Shehbaz Sharif to be the Prime Minister in a pathetically
convoluted political engineering, General Asim Munir may have won a
temporary battle but certainly lost the war to the people of Pakistan.
The election results showed how far removed are the Generals from public
sentiments. Or how indifferent and callous they are towards the people
whose support General Asim Munir has often sought. Especially when his
own position within the army as well as outside was shaky.
The electoral outcome is also the biggest failure of Munir and his cohorts, far
more serious a setback than his inability to take on the militant group,
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which killed over 100 soldiers and officers
in the past year. This failure will have a serious consequence for his
leadership as well as the army’s role in public life.
Demand for his resignation, as well as the removal of ISI chief, Lt. General
Nadeem Anjum and other ISI and Army officers involved in the election duty are set to grow in the days to come as the country hobbles along with
a weak coalition government led by Shehbaz Sharif.
The Rawalpindi spin doctors are trying to put a new spin on the results by
projecting that the younger Sharif was the real choice of Munir and company
and that Nawaz Sharif was merely a cut-out. But no amount of propaganda
can undo the colossal damage done to the army’s honour and image by the
jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and the people who voted for him.
The Generals have often lost wars but rarely an election. Last time, the army
lost an election, it lost the war and a major chunk of his territory which went
on to become Bangladesh. This is the second time in the history of Pakistan
that a General has lost the electoral battle, an event which will have a
cataclysmic impact on the army and the country as well.
Though there may not be any immediate fallout of the electoral debacle in
the army but in the days ahead, General Munir’s position within the army
may come for greater questioning. There are senior Generals who could
have been the COAS instead of Munir and are likely to become more bolder
in their dissent and machinations now that Munir finds himself isolated. He
may be happy with Shehbaz Sharif becoming the premier but Nawaz Sharif
may not be so, given the fact he put his entire political life and goodwill at
stake for Munir’s plans against Imran Khan. The senior Sharif has lost everything, his connection with people, his equation with the military with only one compensation, the chief ministership for his daughter, Maryam.
It seems difficult for Munir to stay afloat, knowing fully well that the electoral
outcome in favour of Imran Khan has given courage to those in the army, at
all levels, who always nursed a liking for Imran Khan to come out more
openly. The May 9 civilian mutiny showed how strong the support Imran
Khan enjoyed among the top Generals, one of whom refused to obey the
GHQ command on the day of rioting in Lahore. The February 8 poll and its
results are no less dramatic and
