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Published Aug 14, 2023, 05:00 AM
Pakistan, whose history is marked by stretches of civilian rule interrupted periodically by a praetorian military, is in a structural impasse again. The country’s Parliament has been dissolved, but elections
are likely to be delayed because electoral boundaries must be redrawn to reflect fresh census data, a process that could take months. Meanwhile, former prime minister Imran Khan’s recent arrest, jailing and exclusion from holding public office for five years appear to have removed from a tumultuous electoral landscape, for the immediate future at least, a charismatic politician who enjoys a substantial mass base.
Although Mr Khan fell from power after having been discarded by the military establishment that had helped to install him in office in 2018, his arrest in May
by supporters who rampaged through military installations and vandalised them. Those unprecedented attacks on the property of the military, an institution long identified with the ultimate security of Pakistan itself, demonstrated the countervailing rise of the cricketer-turned-politician on the democratic pitch shaping up in Pakistan. His incarceration creates space for other political actors to vie for power as the military reasserts its influence as the proverbial kingmaker.
