Is the game over for Imran Khan and his party?

ISLAMABAD: Is the game over for Imran Khan and his party? That seems to be the foremost question on most people's minds after the Pakistani military announced the unprecedented sacking of three top army officers for failing to protect key defence installations during the May 9 violence.

Titled 'Checkmate?', an editorial in the Dawn newspaper on Tuesday rightly mentioned that there was scant mention of Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in the military spokesman's almost hour-and-a-half-long address on Monday, which was otherwise focused on the tragedy of May 9.

But while he may not have named names, there was little doubt about whom the Director General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Ahmed Sharif was addressing when he stated that the military believes that, currently, the 'single biggest threat' to Pakistan is from the "internal political instability" that has wracked the country over the past year or so, the leading newspaper commented.

Supporters of former prime minister Khan's party attacked and vandalised more than 20 military installations and government buildings, including the Lahore Corps Commander House, Mianwali airbase and the ISI building in Faisalabad. The Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi was also attacked by the mob for the first time.

He described the events of May 9 as a planned conspiracy masterminded by people involved in "misleading the people for the past several months against the army and its leadership", making it clear to whom the finger of blame is pointed but stopped short of naming anyone.

Major General Sharif said the masterminds of the May 9 incidents are the same people who have been masterminded against the people's army for some time now for their nefarious political purposes and to gain power, another apparent reference to Khan, the embattled chief of PTI.

Khan, 70, is facing reportedly facing more than 150 cases across the country since he launched a campaign against the federal government.

''Today I have broken the world record, not in cricket, but by having to appear in 20 cases, which is a new record. Cases ranging from murder to terrorism to sedition,'' Khan said a tweet earlier this month.

More than 140 PTI leaders and former lawmakers have succumbed to pressure so far and joined the Istekham-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) led by another deserter of PTI Jahangir Khan Tareen.

Khan was ousted as Pakistan's prime minister in April last year after the opposition parties led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) brought a no-confidence motion against his government and won it. Since his government was brought down, Khan, a cricketer-turned-politician, has been at loggerheads with the Pakistan Army, accusing the powerful institution to be behind the plot to oust him.

The powerful Pakistan Army has ruled the coup-prone country for more than half of its 75-plus years of existence and has wielded considerable power in matters of security and foreign policy.

Separately, The News in its editorial titled 'ISPR Presser' termed the action against the army officers as unprecedented in recent history.

"In an unprecedented – at least in recent history – a show of strong self-accountability, the Pakistan military has taken action against those within the institution found wanting in 'maintaining the security and honour of garrisons, military installations'," the newspaper's Editorial Board commented. The seriousness of this institutional accountability drive is also reflected in the clear message that no rank, class or clout will help those involved in the attacks on military installations, according to the editorial.

The federal government and the Pakistan Army have vowed that all those who were engaged in the May 9 attacks will be tried under the stringent Army Act.

The paper opined that that analysis of the press conference shows that "the military is in no mood to play ball with those seen to be behind what it says was a carefully planned day of chaos" and no one is being given a free pass: whether by virtue of being part of the armed forces or being related to a member of the armed forces.

The paper concluded by saying that accountability processes should be transparent when it comes to the trials of the civilians involved and all institutions of state should work together to overcome what has happened as the country moves towards a general election later this year.