Why Imran raises 1971 ? Is he comparing himself to Mujib?

 

New Delhi

Imran Khan continues to hit headlines and trigger new crises for the government of the day and the military leadership - who for all practical purposes once helped change his political fortune.

The country is faced with an extremely perilous situation and it is certainly more polarised and violence-prone than ever. There seems to be a breakdown of the system even the army is clueless of either handling him or to deal with the escalating clashes between the institutions and between a growing section of Pakistani mass with the sacred cow called army.

Now Imran has pitched in a bouncer by raking up the gory chapter in Pakistani history - the 1971 and the creation of Bangladesh. The political development marked with intense military torture and assistance by India to the Mukti Bahini remains one of the worst experiences for a 'haari hui kaum (a nation of losers).

"In March 1971 I had gone to play an under-19 cricket match, I still remember what kind of hatred (kitini nafrat) the East Pakistan people had harboured for us. They controlled media then and they are controlling it even now," Khan said. His reference is perhaps a multi-pronged strategy. It's a bouncer- to use the cricket similarity - wherein the rivals may lose out a wicket and the opponent's batsman too gets retired hurt.

Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa is now a retired military chief. Only recently he had said that the 1971 debacle was a "poliical

failure" for Islamabad and not military failure. "Our soldiers fought courageously....," Bajwa had remarked.

Imran hit many birds by his 1971 reference. He is reminding Pakistani army the humiliated defeat it suffered

at the hands of Mukti Bahini and Indian forces. The message to Army being, "Go and fight Indian army....do not

show your strengths to civilians here and stop meddling into politics".

The fact of the matter is Pakistani army has obsession about meddling with politics. They will play 'who is our

favourite neta' and so on. But Imran had changed the game in 2020-21 itself. He started playing up 'my favourite

Generals and those who are not'. Bajwa fell into the second category and there were many others.

The army establishment was thus irked and subsequently Imran Khan was voted out of office in a parliamentary no trust exercise -- which now looks mostly orchestrated. PPP of Bhuttos and Zardaris came close to the outfit of Sharifs was not path-breaking alliance, it was a military sponsored indirect coup.

But once of office, Imran Khan appeared more influential and popular. His appeal galvanized people and 

today there is every chance if there is election, Imran Khan will make a come back. The army is unnerved

just by thinking about such a possibility.

Here comes Imran's reference to 1971 nightmare in Pakistan history and the former cricket icon is 

in a veiled manner comparing himself with the legendary Banga Bandhu - Mujibar Rahman.

The former Prime Minister Imran has alleged that the country’s military establishment wants to imprison him for 

the next 10 years under sedition charges. This is essentially to disqualify him from contesting and preventing

him from becoming Prime Minister yet again. In 1970-71, Mujib was denied the opportunity to be Prime

Minister of an united Pakistan when he had the numbers in the House.

The Awami League gained an absolute majority, winning 160 of the 162 general seats and all seven 

women's seats in East Pakistan. The PPP won only 81 general seats and five women's seats, all in West Pakistan. 

The 300-member National Assembly was not allowed to be convened by President Yahya Khan and the PPP 

chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who did not want a party from East Pakistan ruling Pakistan. This was the

beginning of 1971 and the split of Pakistan.

Hence, Imran's rhetoric about 1971 is more than significant. These words do not flow out simply out of

love for Bengali population by the former cricket icon.

Notably, in one of the many media interviews, the outgoing army chief Gen. Bajwa also admitted that 

for seven decades the army had “unconstitutionally interfered in politics”.

Analysts in Pakistan say, the army is like a outer shield meant for 'protecting' people from outside

attacks. But the story goes that the cantonment bosses have repeatedly intruded into the vehicle’s interior and

always gave unto themselves the job of selecting the driver (read Prime Minister). 

Even Imran was one such driver in 2018, when army projected Khan as a honest politician as against

corrupt Sharifs and Bhuttos and Zardaris.

But once the driver Imran Khan wanted to take his own route and driving routine, the problems started.

"...the proposed establishment of military courts and deployment of the army in major cities would further lengthen the 

institution’s shadow, which already eclipses a tottering civilian government," runs an article in newspaper 'Dawn'.

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