A NUMBER of developments over the past week suggest that the establishment is keen to enforce/ maintain the status quo and the only impediment in its path may be an assertive superior judiciary that has been increasingly finding its feet in recent weeks.

If jailed PTI leader and former prime minister Imran Khan’s article in UK’s conservative right-wing Telegraph newspaper blaming the military leadership directly for all his woes the week before was not hint enough of the state of play, two public statements by the latter clarified issues rather unambiguously.

The first came in the DG ISPR’s press briefing, which was ostensibly called to discuss Afghanistan-based terrorist groups’ involvement in attacks on Chinese nationals working on development projects in the country. But in response to a couple of questions about the PTI and Imran Khan related to the events of May 9 last year, the DG ISPR stated unequivocally that the only path to rehabilitation for the political party and its leaders was to ‘seek forgiveness for attacking your own forces’.

Then, perhaps, talks could happen and that too with ‘political parties’ (ie, the government), as the military had ‘nothing to do with politics’. Imran Khan has been consistent in saying he wouldn’t talk to the ‘powerless political parties’ and that a meaningful dialogue is possible only with the military.

The DG ISPR also lamented the delay in the prosecution and sentencing of all those responsible for the May mayhem — including the........

© Dawn