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 Tehreeke-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 9 May. 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.
