In May 2023, a recorded phone call — allegedly between the mother-in-law of the former Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Atta Bandial, and the wife of a lawyer-member of Imran Khan’s populist Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) — was ‘leaked’ on social media. In the call, the two ladies can be heard criticising the coalition government made up of the parties that had ousted Khan’s regime in April 2022 through an act of parliament.
At one point in the leaked conversation, the mother-in-law laments, “Yeh kambakht martial law bhi tau nahin lagaatay! [These cursed people don’t even impose martial law!]” By ‘kambakht’, she meant the military establishment (ME).
The conversation was surreal on many levels. Khan had been the ‘blue-eyed boy’ of the ME, until he had a falling out with his ‘makers’. From 2011 till he was elected as prime minister in 2018, the ME had successfully shaped Khan’s political rise in a highly coordinated manner. His ‘popularity’ was first established within the rank and file of the military. Then, some TV journalists were brought on board, followed by the induction of some vital members of the judiciary.
This troika — the ME, the electronic media and the judiciary — was complimented by the trained social media wing of Khan’s PTI to proliferate narratives pitched against the two older mainstream parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)
After his ouster, Imran Khan was convinced that the establishment had ‘betrayed’ him, and the May 9-10 protests last year were an attempt to rally support amongst ‘pro-Khan’ factions in the military. However, any military intervention was........