New Delhi: A day after Pakistan’s major opposition parties submitted a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, after holding his government responsible for the uncontrolled inflation and sky-scraping unemployment, the political future of PM Khan now is in troubled waters as pointed out by experts.
With this development, the political gamble played by the opposition parties to encircle PM Khan and to eventually oust him seems palpable and now the game is on with both the ruling and the opposition alliance engaging in a political wheeling.
Talking to ETV Bharat, a prominent journalist from Islamabad who spoke on the condition of anonymity said “Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan's Peoples Party (PPP), Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Fazal-ur-Rehman of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) are the frontrunners for the opposition's face. At present, when Islamabad is in deep turmoil, be it in the economy or in socio-political and security matters, the consistent support by the establishment of PM Khan is fading. And this has come in front of the opposition and there is a huge popular consensus to oust him from his premiership. But the establishment (refereeing to Army) right now is thinking democratically and is of a view that he should at least complete his tenure. “
When being asked to comment over who could become an ideal candidate if PM Khan gets ousted, the journalist from Islamabad replied, “It’s not easy to predict who will become the next Prime Minister but the real question is- PM Khan has already completed 3.5 years of his tenure and his policies and actions have devastated the nation. When only 15 months are left to his tenure and if he gets ousted, then his successor would have to undo or alter many of his policies in order to create a bit of balance which is highly impossible in a period of 15-18 months. And that will again put a question mark on his candidacy for the PM post for the next round of elections. “
When being asked to comment on what’s in the air of Pakistan, prominent Pakistani journalist Nusrat Amin who works for GeoTv replied “I don’t know much about what is happening in the political circles nor I can predict the future, but all I know is Hamid Mir, has returned to Geo News and is doing his first show after almost a year and that is a big change”.
PM Khan’s ouster and his impact on New Delhi
The bilateral relations between India and Pakistan have suffered a major setback under the premiership of PM Khan. While the scale of religious extremism and fundamentalism continues to surge in Islamabad, which indeed is a security threat not just to India but to the entire sub-continent but PM Khan continues to blame New Delhi and never skips a chance to raise the Kashmir issue while terror outfits continue to move freely in his country.
Commenting on the possibility of Imran's ouster could lead to a better India-Pakistan relationship, Sushant Sareen, Senior Fellow at Observer Research Foundation (ORF) said, “Under PM Imran Khan’s tenure, the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan has only worsened. Last year, there was a cease-fire at LOC, credit to the backdoor negotiations which in a way hinted towards smoothing of relations but for now that has ended. All I can say is that while I don’t think that there is a possibility of smoothening of relations in the near future but one can only predict that his departure could in a way bring back the opening of backdoor negotiations, to a smaller extent only.
“It is impossible to see these crises with a plain lens. There is no black and white here. One has to expand its horizon. What I feel right now is that the ouster of PM Khan could only improve Indo-Pak relations to a smaller extent only but even then, the kind of activities Pakistan's establishment supports by supporting proxies against India would continue, adds Sareen.
Security Apparatus and Threats to India
Since the re-emergence of the Taliban 2.0 following the fall of the west backed Ashraf Ghani government in Afghanistan, South Asia now faces a deep danger from Islamic terrorism to which New Delhi is not an exception.
To a question of how will the re-emergence of the Taliban could impact New Delhi’s security apparatus, Sushant Sareen replied, "At present, the direct impact of this is on Pakistan. The terror attacks have spiked ever since the subsequent takeover by the Taliban 2.0.
“It has never been a secret that it is only after the consent of Pakistan’s establishment that terrorists enter our soil. And therefore, this demonstrates that our first problem is with Pakistan. Secondly, history has taught us that whenever Afghanistan faces turmoil or gets destabilized, it for sure affects India. The advent of Islamic terrorism and extremism in India could be traced back to the 1979 situation in Afghanistan,” adds Sareen.
