Principled pathway to civilian supremacy…..Bilal Lakhani

Imran Khan is the best thing to happen to civilian supremacy since Bhutto. Ive been making this argument in my columns over the last twelve months but have been called out by friends who say Khans fight for civilian supremacy isnt principled, its simply a play for power. They argue that I cant ask them as supporters of civilian supremacy to scream and shout about PDMs human rights abuses against PTI supporters because I didnt raise my voice loudly enough against similar charges when PTI was in power.

Today, Im going to engage with this thesis and argue that the PTI needs to publicly accept and apologise for transgressions in their tenure, if they really want to be a champion of civilian supremacy and broaden their coalition. First, a quick recap of why I feel Khan is delivering a masterclass on civilian supremacy. He was booted out of power last year thanks to a behind-the-scenes deal to put PDM at the helm. Instead of going into exile, Khan literally bet his Zaman Park house and the party on holding elections as quickly as possible and returning to power through the ballot box. The powers-that-be dont want to hold elections because theyre afraid of the PTI winning.

And Khan isnt compromising on his core demand of elections, resulting in brutal state repression against his supporters. It started with the murder of Arshad Sharif, the jailing and torturing of senior PTI leadership, leaking of private videos, an assassination attempt on Khan himself, media censorship, killing a party worker and shelling the workers with tear gas and rubber bullets. This is classic behaviour to get any civilian leader in Pakistan to fall in line. But Khan keeps making a singular demand to hold elections on the constitutionally mandated timeline of 90 days. If this isnt what civilian supremacy looks like, Im afraid Ill never know what it looks like in Pakistan.

But all this isnt good enough for my friends. They argue none of this counts because similar charges of repression did occur when PTI was in power. I could argue that PTI wasnt as violent there were no bullets fired on Nawaz Sharif, instead he flew to London on a private jet, no social media worker of PML-N or PPP has ever disappeared, no Pakistani journalist was shot dead on foreign soil during PTIs tenure, no PML-N/PPP rally was tear-gassed or shelled, but Im not going to do that because repression is repression. Activists like Ammar Ali Jan and Ammar Rashid were picked up in PTIs tenure.

PTM was demonised and repressed. Nawazs speeches were banned on the media. Journalists were picked up, tortured and shot at. If its wrong now, it was wrong then. PTI should accept and apologise for their transgressions and pledge to do better in a principled way if they come back to power. This isnt just important for Pakistan but also for PTI. Let me explain. The traditional playbook for controlling civilian leaders in Pakistan is collapsing at Shehbaz speed. Youre scandalising Khans Nikkah, releasing sleazy audios, throwing dirt on his integrity but none of it is sticking. The traditional tools of propaganda are failing so quickly that Pakistans largest PR firm couldnt tweet for months because they were being trolled so hard by PTI supporters. The powers-that-be are so afraid of holding elections that theyre literally accepting that the country is so insecure that they cant provide troops for elections.

PDM is so afraid of elections that its accepting that they havent been able to manage the economy well enough to pay for elections. This is remarkable stuff. All status quo forces are quivering in their boots. Now is the time to strike a new social contract on the back of a sweeping electoral mandate. But Khan cant strike a social contract only for his voters, he must strike a new bargain for people who didnt vote for him either. The only way to broaden Khans coalition which he needs to actually deliver on a two-thirds majority is to publicly accept and apologise for the excesses of his first tenure and promise to operate in a principled manner going forward. Khans supporters already trust that their sacrifices for civilian supremacy will not be squandered. Now Khan needs to earn the trust of those who didnt vote for him.

Courtesy The Express Tribune