Two days ago, after Pakistan’s army called the alleged foreign conspiracy to topple the Tehreek-e-Insaf government as a ‘hollow and fabricated story’, has the war of narratives in Pakistan’s politics entered its final stages or is it now? Steps left? And will Imran Khan be able to succeed in holding elections soon?
The focus of this question will be on the point that the stance and narrative of former Prime Minister and Chairman Tehreek-e-Insaaf Imran Khan is affected by the press conference of DG ISPR and DG ISI at the public level.
It should be noted that this matter started when Imran Khan announced on March 27 that there is a conspiracy to topple his government, which includes foreign powers and opposition parties.
He repeated this position again and again after the fall of the government and also blamed the army in subdued words.
His same criticism was answered by the army yesterday when, unusually, the DG ISI attended a press conference.
During this press conference, on the issue of foreign conspiracy, it was said, “It was surprising for us when a piece of paper was waved in a rally in Islamabad on March 27 and an attempt was made to give a dramatic narrative which had nothing to do with reality.’
Acording to him, earlier, the Army Chief himself had mentioned this to the former Prime Minister in Kamra on March 11, to which he said, “It is not a big deal.”
In an interview given to journalist Aamir Mateen yesterday, Imran Khan dismissed the claim as false and claimed that ‘if I start responding, my country will suffer. Damage to the country will mean damage to my army because I know that the world, our enemies want our army to be weak.’
However, beyond the facts of the cipher, this issue is now about the expression of popularity and power in the political arena, in which PTI, PDM and the army have become three parties.
In such a situation, a few questions are of great importance, the foremost of which is whether the narrative of Imran Khan, on which he is still standing, will suffer a blow.
The second important question is what will be the effects of the tension between the country’s main institution and a major political party after this press conference just a month before the army chief’s retirement?
“Demand of election from army is not unconstitutional”
It should be noted that in yesterday’s press conference, it was said by DG ISPR and DG ISI that the army as an institution decided that it will work within the constitutional limits and will not play a political role.
According to him, the reason for criticizing the army is that it refused to perform illegal activity.
In this context, he said that ‘Imran Khan has been expressing unconstitutional wishes in meetings in the dark of night’, on which the Tehreek-e-Insaaf and Imran Khan himself confirmed the meeting and said that only the election It was discussed and it is not unconstitutional to demand elections from the army and to use force for this purpose.
Imran Khan said in an interview yesterday that ‘We had a meeting in the President’s House where Arif Alvi was in the middle and I said only one thing that if we want to get the country out of the quagmire, there is no other way except a clean and transparent election.’
However, the question between claims and counter-claims is whether Imran Khan’s narrative will be affected in the eyes of a common man by the press conference of the army yesterday and to what extent? Will the common supporter be forced to reconsider supporting Imran Khan?