Imran Khan’s street politics sets up showdown with army

Bloomberg

Pakistan’s military-backed establishment faces a dilemma: The more they seek to boot Imran Khan out of politics, the greater the risk he becomes even more popular.
Since his ouster in a no-confidence vote in April, Khan has sought to rally his supporters in the world’s fifth-most populous country to hit the streets and push for a fresh national vote. The campaign has been paying off lately, with Khan’s party winning key by-elections.
The former cricket star has also drawn tens of thousands of people to rallies in which he rails against Pakistan’s military, which has ruled the country for about half of its history and retains outsized influence over elected governments. Over the weekend, Khan gave a fiery speech in the capital Islamabad lashing out at senior police officials and a judge who were involved in the arrest of one of his aides.
Khan secured preemptive bail Thursday from possible arrest over a police complaint related to the speech filed under the country’s anti-terrorism law, while a court separately ordered Khan to appear before it next week as it mulls possible contempt of court charges for comments deemed to threaten judicial officials. The bail order protects him from arrest until Sept. 1. The government is also looking at ways it can ban his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, from national elections that must be held by late next year.
But a strategy of trying to silence Khan, 69, could easily backfire. On the streets, he has tapped into deep public resentment over a broken economy and a political system beholden to dynasties and unelected power brokers. Khan’s party also recently notched victories in local elections in the financial capital Karachi and the most-populous province of Punjab, which is often seen as a litmus test for the national mood.
Late Thursday, Khan again urged his supporters to be ready to march on to Islamabad if the government doesn’t announce dates for fresh elections.
“Time is short so get ready for my call,” the former prime minister said at a rally, adding that his party doesn’t want to harm national institutions, a reference that includes the military and intelligence agencies. “Our criticism is always constructive.”
There are also signs that Khan still retains plenty of silent allies in the military even if he’s fallen out of favor with the army chief, Qamar Javed Bajwa. Retired army officials have attended pro-Khan rallies in recent months. “Imran’s fight seems to be with General Bajwa and not with the military as a whole,” said Akhil Bery, director of South Asia Initiatives at the Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington.