Speculations are being made on the 22-delay. Did PM Imran Khan really want Lt-Gen Faiz Hameed to remain as the DG ISI or was there something else on his mind? This standoff was earlier witnessed in 2019 over the issue of extension of COAS General Qamar Bajwa.
SAPM Aamir Dogar said that the prime minister wanted Lt-Gen Faiz Hameed to serve for a few more months due to the developing situation in Afghanistan. On the other hand, many journalists have speculated that Khan wanted General Faiz to remain as long as possible since the latter is the balance wheel of the Imran-establishment nexus. And with him gone, the unpredictability that may entail will be hard to deal with.
Najam Sethi, in his editorial published on October 8, also mentioned the ambition of Lt-Gen Faiz Hameed to become the future Chief of Army Staff; “Although the transfer was on the cards — because his subsequent professional ambition depended on commanding a Corps – it was also known that Prime Minister Imran Khan wanted to hang on to his ISI coattails for as long as possible. Perhaps this is why there is a buzz about the delay in issuing the notification,” Sethi wrote.
I believe that it is neither Afghanistan nor Imran Khan’s personal relationship with General Faiz, (something Maryam Nawaz keeps mentioning) that prompted this delay, but this predicament was a long time coming. In fact, Khan has long been looking at the opportunity to stretch his powers further into the actual cycle of power. This delay in the notification and his words quoted at the cabinet meeting, “I am not a rubber stamp,” however tell a different tale.
It was always an unnatural phenomenon for a man like Imran Khan to be a prime minister that is subservient to the establishment. If Khan was the one to share power, he would have long joined any party: PPP and PML-N. He would at least have joined hands with General Musharraf, which he avoided -- being with him on other issues is a different matter altogether. Khan used to accentuate the fact in his interviews that should he ever become the PM, he would never work under the establishment but rather make them work under him.
Throughout his political struggle, one aspect of his politics has invariably prevailed: Up until 2010, he attacked all his opponents: political parties as well as establishment and bureaucracy. Finally, when he realised that he was in dire need of a mutation in his political approach he cozied up to the establishment and we suddenly saw a foreign minister of a sitting government resign and join a party with a more promising future. It was then that suddenly all logic was altered in his favour. As they say, if you can’t beat them, join them.
The day Khan did finally become the PM, his delight was worth watching -- a dream come true. He even gave a very enlightening address to the nation with a smiley face and pledged to be a perfect PM and even have a question answer session in the parliament akin to that of the British parliament. All was well until, in the very first session Bilawal Bhutto -- a politician half his age -- sarcastically called him 'selected' at the end of his eloquent speech. But Khan had reached his destiny and it was now time for him to culminate as much power as he could, just like his days in cricket. So he started off with keeping all the power to himself within the government.
The man made everyone believe that he knows no politics but ended up playing the best political game in the history of Pakistan. He smartly shattered the ambitions of his own knights and kept all the power for himself alone. Among these disciples are Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Atif Khan, Shehram Tarakai, Dr. Amir Liaqat, Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar and Pervaiz Khattak, to mention a few. Almost all of them were looking for a promotion yet they had to repeat their previous job descriptions or remain at OSD sort of positions. The others like Buzdar, Mehmood Khan, Imran Ismail and Shah Farman were blessed with fortunes they do not understand, amid other pleasures of hundreds of class four servants and green number plate cars, paid for by the government of Pakistan-to be more precise, by us.
The man even bossed the bosses around. Firstly, by signing an incomplete summary of the extension of the incumbent Army Chief and letting the matter of extension flutter in the Supreme Court. So much so that the Army Chief was given a conditional extension by the Supreme Court on November 28, 2019 and the government was ordered to legislate on the issue of extension. And most recently, the establishment has yet again had to face humiliation due to the PM, as he first nodded off to the appointment of new DG ISI but later strained at a gnat over the issue-insisting at the same time that all is well, as is usually for him-the ‘same page’ mantra.
All is also well for his supporters. And this is where Khan's supporters have surpassed the enthusiasm of their peers from other parties. The PM has behind him a cult and a more sophisticated one than Jialas. This cult, coupled with the fact that the establishment has no other immediate option to replace Khan with, at this very instance, is what keeps Khan safe and provides him with the security to play dangerous games with the establishment. Even realities don’t matter to him.
The man chooses the most incompetent man as his CM for the biggest province of Punjab and reckons him quintessential to Wasim Akram in cricket. Despite all criticism of Buzdar, for a PTI supporter, this was the best appointment in the history of world politics.
He says he would first set his own house in order, and yet the house remains dirty with swindlers who sucked great benefit during the wheat and sugar crises. But for his cultists, the PM still remains the most honest man on earth. Medicines went into outer space in the era of an emperor who is a famous philanthropist for seeding the only authentic Cancer hospital in Pakistan. None of this matters for his supporters and not much to the establishment either as long as they are not affected. And this is where Khan is strong. He has mastered all disinformation techniques and has taken great advantage of the modern tool of social media.
Now, even after the notification, there seems to be huge unrest amongst the bosses in that they failed to apprehend the real side of the man they thought would just be happy with the premiership just like a child after getting the toy it wants. What they forgot is that once a child gets the toy he so zealously craves, he loses interest in it after a while and wants another toy!