On January 21, 2022, members of the joint opposition brought a serious issue under debate in the National Assembly, regarding a possible turnover of the country’s present form of government by the ruling party along with a segment of the country’s establishment. Though this seemed unrealistic to the majority because the opposition couldn’t provide some solid evidence, but there has something happened which caused this much apprehension to the opposition.
It is inevitable that the ruling party has got the full support of an important segment of the establishment, that is the the country’s highest military leadership. According to the former DG ISI, late Gen Hamid Gul, a prominent and outspoken personality in Pakistan’s history having a great expertise in military manoeuvering and world politics, this so-called Western democracy has caused Pakistan much harm than any good after partition. In a television interview back in 2013, he goes further and predicts that in the coming years the country’s whole governance system will be upside down, and rebirth of a new system will happen which will ultimately, replace this present rotten system. He calls this new system as the Islamic Presidential system of governance, in which the president will be more like an Islamic Caliph and this system will apparently be on the Islamic principles of governance. He further claims that this is one of the long-term policies of Pakistan of which a very few people have access to, General was perceived to be one them since, he had served the Country’s most powerful institution, the ISI.
As far as his calculated predictions about Afghanistan’s future and Pakistan’s foreign policy on neighboring Afghanistan, based upon his involvement in the Soviet withdrawal of Afghanistan and the Afghan jihad are concerned, he had predicted the whole scenario of August 15, 2021 way back in 2009, some 12 years before the Taliban-takeover of Kabul, which happened exactly in the same manner which he had predicted 12 years ago.
This shows his overall insight regarding the regional affairs of South Asia and his capability of assessing events thereafter, predicting their fallouts. Since, he was the head of the ISI and still had connections with the intelligence servicemen, even after his retirement. Thus, General can be trusted in, aleast, Pakistan’s context.
So far, Whatever Gen Gul predicted about PM Khan’s Government has proved to be true.
Firstly, he predicted about khan giving the general folks a bunch of expectations which he won’t be able to deliver because of this rotten so-called western system of governance,
Secondly, the judiciary and bureaucracy’s attitude towards politicians who, to some extent, don’t want to listen to politicians and their rightful demands.
Thirdly, all of the above reasons will lead to a chaos amongst general public and when the hopes of the general public will be dashed then, this new Islamic Presidential system will emerge, in this way people will accept this.
If we analyze the current situation, the former two predictions have proved to be true, as the judiciary and bureaucracy have some serious resentments with the PTI’s regime, because of the premier Imran Khan’s citizen-centric approach of governance, which he clearly professes in the NSP 2022-26, Pakistan’s first-ever National Security Policy document that got approved on Dec 27, 2021, which is a civil-military consensus-based overarching document. Now, it seems that the Civil and the military leadership are on the same page of Pakistan’s fluctuating political landscape, which is adding to the apprehensions of the opposition that some kind of a deal is giong to be made between the ruling party and the establishment in the years to come.
According to Gen Hamid Gul, Imran khan has a great caliber amongst Pakistani folk, he can take them in whatever direction he wants. Therefore, he is the best person who can take the general public in confidence regarding the paradigm shift of the present Government system and replacing it by the Islamic Presidential System, a system which the military wants in Pakistan in order to have a stable and developed Pakistan, which will eventually be in the interest of the poor and the middle-class population. In this regard, PM Khan’s notion of the state of Madina is perceived to be an important step towards the Islamic Presidential form of government, which will eventually pave the way for this so-called PTI-led campaign.
The former two predictions have proved to be true and the later is yet to be proved if the General is to be trusted.
