Army Backing Vital for Khan to Survive Pakistan’s Confidence

Photographer: Asif Hassan / AFP / Getty Images

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has spent much of his 2018 election campaign denying being a military champion. After suffering a shocking loss in parliament this week, he turned to the country’s powerful army chief.

Khan on Thursday met Army General Qamar Javed Bajwa with the head of the army’s espionage agency after his finance minister lost a battle for a seat in the Senate or the upper house. The conversation with the head of the institution, which has led to numerous coups and a huge swing over policy, is likely to send a strong message to lawmakers, as Khan wants a vote of confidence in parliament on Saturday.

For the army, which has ruled the country about half of its existence since independence in 1947, Khan represents stability as the economy recovers from the shrinkage caused by pandemics. While US President Joe Biden is urging allies to uphold democracy, Pakistan will be eager to avoid the unrest in the region, which is already plagued by a coup in Myanmar.

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“Bajwa wants to maintain continuity and show that everything is fine,” Burzine Waghmar, a member of the Center for the Study of Pakistan, told SOAS University in London. The military also wants to ‘get off to a good start with the Biden administration’.

Khan’s meeting with Bajwa arranged the opposition. “It’s giving the wrong message,” opposition leader Maryam Nawaz told a news conference on Thursday.

There was no immediate comment from the federal government’s spokesman or the military.

Numbers shifted

Khan needs the support of 172 lawmakers to win the vote of confidence. Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party and allies have 178 seats in the 342-member National Assembly or the lower house of parliament. However, party-backed finance minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh received 164 votes in the election on Wednesday. The members of the National Assembly vote in the Senate and the defeat asked Khan to seek a vote of confidence and prove that he still commands the majority.

To ensure that Khan at least supports his legislators, Pakistan’s spy agency was asked to monitor their movement and ensure their presence in parliament on Saturday, according to officials aware of the information. They asked not to be identified, and spoke to the media.

“No party can stay in power without institutional support from the military,” said Amit Ranjan, a research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies. National University of Singapore. “Whoever comes next, if Khan loses, also needs support from the military.”

The military already has an extraordinary role in the administration of Khan – with a say in foreign policy and security economic decisions. It is known that generals have private meetings with businessmen and policy makers.

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Meanwhile, former and current military officials are in prominent government support roles, such as managing the state-owned airline and Khan’s low-cost housing plan.

Military support

“The idea that the establishment looks completely neutral seems a bit far-fetched,” Niaz Murtaza, executive director of the Islamic think tank Inspiring Pakistan, said by telephone, referring to the army. The military “continues to support the government and they will continue to do so.”

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