In from pakistan ‘saas bhi kabhi bahu thi’ political soap opera equivalent in real life, Director General of Inter-Agency Intelligence, Lt. Gen. Nadeem Anjum and Director General of Inter-Agency Public Relations, Lt. Gen. Babar Iftikhar appeared together at a press briefing on October 27 to clarify the position of the army regarding the politics of Imran Khan and to deny the involvement of the army and its leader in politics.

Going against his policy, the head of the ISI came to speak with a limited number of journalists for the first time since his appointment to the post in November 2021. The press briefing was carefully choreographed with questions from the audience that only criticized Imran. Khan. Although a large group of journalists was invited, as Baqir Sajjad pointed out, Dawn‘s Foreign and National Security correspondent, major media like Dawn, the news and The Express Grandstand were excluded.

Madam, do you expect such questions in a meeting with a small group, even if it is important. Where were the correspondents for The News, Express Tribune & Dawn? Why weren’t they invited?

— Baqir Sajjad (@baqirsajjad) October 27, 2022

Although intended to communicate unity within the armed forces and to defend the army and its outgoing leader, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the crisis facing the army was evident during the press conference.

Read also : Journalist Arshad Sharif’s death has Pakistan talking, but the blame game is still on

Death of journalist Arshad Sharif

There were three interrelated goals of the press conference that the ISI and ISPR chiefs may have failed to achieve. The most immediate concern and perhaps a tactical objective was to dispel rumors that the military had something to do with the recent murder of journalist Arshad Sharif, who was allegedly shot dead by Kenyan police in a mistaken case. of identity. Much of the press briefing was devoted to reconstructing and presenting information pointing the finger at the General Headquarters of the Army (GQG) to other people like the boss of the media channel ARY, the former employer of the deceased. General Anjum contradicted the rumor circulating that Pakistani security agencies had asked the UAE government to extradite Arshad Sharif to Pakistan, which is why he moved to Kenya.

The Islamabad government has formed a commission to investigate the journalist’s death, but there is generally little hope that the truth will ever be uncovered. Ironically, the generals professed sympathy for Arshad Sharif and claimed to be innocent of scaring the media or dissidents in general when that is exactly what they were known to do. I remember an intelligence agency within my extended family circle advising my husband to encourage me to return to Pakistan – his argument being, “If they wanted to kill her, they would have done it because they can kill anywhere in the world. In a 2017 interview, retired General Pervez Musharraf called the foreign assassinations “proactive diplomacy”.

In an interview with Wajahat some time ago, Musharraf was asked about the killing of Pakistani dissidents abroad. “Everybody does it,” the general said, calling it proactive diplomacy. When the anchor said it wasn’t diplomacy but proactive assassination, Mush burst out laughing

— Farhatullah Babar (@FarhatullahB) October 24, 2022

In early 2022, a British-Pakistani man in London was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to kill a Rotterdam-based Pakistani blogger allegedly at the behest of the ISI.

Contrary to what General Anjum would have his audience believe, the power to harm people or spread the myth of doing so is not foreign to Pakistan, especially over the past decade, to discipline dissenters or manage activism. So why this panic at the death of Arshad Sharif? The deceased journalist was certainly not just any ordinary dissident or a dissident at all, but was part of the wider military fraternity that felt confident enough to come apart from the pack on the Imran Khan case. He was more than the son and brother of a military officer, but someone close to the army and its agencies. Anjum’s organization never forgives its people if they go astray.

Clearly, like a few other journalists, who were trained and fed stories by the military and turned into prominent media personalities, Sharif fell victim to the internal organizational chasm created around Imran Khan’s policies. Many had begun to believe that Imran Khan and his party were the answer to their search for a new Pakistan where traditional politics and politicians would have little role to play.

Read also : Fighting to heal broken bones in Pakistani army, ISI chief attacks Imran in first-ever press conference

Imran Khan against the Pakistani army

This brings me to the second objective of the press conference, which was to depopularize Imran Khan. The PTI chief was accused by DG ISI of lying and doublespeak – meeting General Bajwa in the dark of night and asking for help but criticizing him in the light of day. But this goal cannot be achieved either. Unless the cricketer-turned-politician publicly admits his mistakes and asks for forgiveness, his many supporters and those sitting on the fence will continue to believe his story. What may impress many is the fact that while Nawaz Sharif withdrew from his criticism of senior army officers and began to negotiate with them, Khan seems to have stuck to his guns by pointing all his fingers towards the rungs. The average PTI supporter may not have the zeal of an average Burmese political activist to fight physically, but he is politically charged enough to continue supporting Khan.

That certainly doesn’t mean that Imran Khan is a great democrat, but driven by his lust for personal power, he seems to be pushing in a direction where others have given up. Or the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) began to see the moment as an opportunity where they could both eat their cake and have it too. This means getting soft backing from the military to fend off Imran Khan, a powerful political threat to which an alternative narrative has not been created by political parties. But in return, he hopes the army high command will cede more political space in the future.

Indeed, the chief executives of the ISI and the ISPR have offered an incredible commitment to remain apolitical. The presser himself is an example of the depth of politics in GHQ’s veins. The claims might have been more believable had the two generals not contained more inaccuracies, such as claiming that they do not harm journalists or interfere with media freedom. Interestingly, a few hours after the press conference, another journalist from the ARY channel, Chaudhry Ghulam Hussain, was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). Although it is claimed that the arrest was made because of his involvement in an older case, people are simply not ready to believe that the law only works when it is wanted.

True, the Khan vs. military battle is not over yet. So far, the only tool used against him is a disqualification in the Toshakhana case. He and his cabal don’t seem ready to give up just yet, which has many wondering how far the military could go against him. The Arshad Sharif case, as political commentator Mohammad Taqi has suggested, has the potential to be used against Khan, just as Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was charged and later convicted in the Nawab Muhammad Ahmed Khan murder case. Kasuri.

The way DG ISI and DG ISPR talked about the Arshad Sharif and Imran Khan murder case in one breath, one wonders if this lays the groundwork for another Nawab Muhammad Ahmad Khan Kasuri case, in which former Prime Minister ZA Bhutto was finally hanged#Pakistan

—Mohammad Taqi (@mazdaki) October 27, 2022

The army is certainly aware of the need not to make Imran Khan more of a hero than it already has. I think the generals will limit their revenge to legal measures and propaganda rather than anything drastic. Much will certainly depend on Khan’s resistance. The press briefing left an impression, as journalist Khurram Hussain put it, uglier than an ugly divorce.

I’ve seen people go through complicated divorces, but that’s something else!

— Khurram Husain (@KhurramHusain) October 27, 2022

But whether the briefing decisively convinces men in the army’s ranks and Khan’s supporters that the army is innocent and that its Khan is to blame remains an unresolved question.

Ayesha Siddiqa is a Senior Fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She is the author of Military Inc.. She tweets @iamthedrifter. Views are personal.

(Editing by Ratan Priya)