Somehow resembling the chaotic street politics of the last few months, the dramatic arrest of Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Imran Khan by paramilitary unit Pakistan Rangers on the premises of the Islamabad High Court on May 9, and the ensuing unrest, mark an expected escalation that may test the nerves of power alignments in the country.
Since his ouster as the Prime Minister of Pakistan in April last year through a no-confidence vote, Khan and his party have relied on street mobilisation in taking on the current government, and more significantly, in confronting the immensely powerful army establishment. Once a blue-eyed boy of the top brass of the army headquartered at Rawalpindi, Khan did miscalculate his elbow room vis-à-vis army during his stint as Pakistan PM. In the later part of his tenure, for instance, this was evident when he was having his own plans for picking the next ISI chief. As the shift in support of a few legislators forced his ouster in an equally dramatic no-confidence vote, Khan couldn’t reconcile to the withdrawal of patronage from the defence establishment. In fact, he took recourse to one of the many conspiracy theories to explain his ouster- an American ploy to remove him because of his independent foreign policy.
