News Analysis: Imran wants polls from establishment he ridiculed repeatedly

ISLAMABAD: The ruling coalition does not want immediate elections but Imran Khan on Monday gave one last chance to the establishment to get him early polls for which it is not prepared. Otherwise, he warned he would give the call for the long march.

After withdrawing itself from political wheeling-dealing, the establishment says it does not want to repeat its past mistakes. Eversince the ouster of Imran Khan from the government, he has been consistently pressing the establishment to intervene and hold early elections.

The establishment, which has been trying during the initial weeks of the present government to make the two political sides sit for a negotiated solution to their disputes but at that time the PTI was rigid and Imran Khan resorted to May 25 long march.

Khan’s May 25 march had really disappointed those in the establishment who were facilitating dialogue between the two sides. Imran Khan in his news conference on Monday admitted that there is behind the scene dialogue process but it is not making any headway because Nawaz Sharif and the ruling coalition are not ready for early polls.

After the May 25 long march of Imran Khan, the ruling coalition decided that it would complete its tenure and would not discuss the option of early polls with Imran Khan, whose only pre-condition for dialogue is to discuss early polls.

Imran Khan, some of his party leaders and social media team have been severely targeting the establishment during the last several months in order to pressurize them to oust the present government and pave the way for early elections. The establishment, however, decided not to intervene in political matters as per wishes of Imran Khan.

Imran Khan publicly ridiculed the establishment hoping that his pressure tactics would work but he did not get the desired results. President Dr Arif Alvi made efforts, some PTI leaders such as Pervez Khattak and Faisal Vawda also tried to rebuild the past relationship between Khan and the establishment. However, it never happened because of two reasons. Firstly, the establishment is not ready to repeat its past mistakes of political engineering. Secondly, Imran Khan and his party crossed all limits of humiliating the establishment.

The recent tweets of Senator Azam Khan Swati and the subsequent endorsement of Swati’s view by Imran Khan through his tweets were really humiliating. Now Imran Khan expects from the same establishment to remove the present government and hold early elections.

With such a conduct, Imran Khan has not only lost the confidence of the present establishment but he has also become unpredictable even for the future establishment. All those who matter know how those who did everything for Imran Khan to bring him into power in 2018, have been criticised and ridiculed by the PTI chairman.

Sources said that the present establishment wants to remain apolitical in order to pass on to the future establishment the environment of neutrality, which is in the best interest of the institution and the country.