Imran Khan Government Fall

 What is important in the current crisis is understanding how the Khan government collapsed. Khan was the first Prime Minister of Pakistan to be ouste
d in a vote of no confidence, but he joined the previous Prime Minister without holding office for more than five years, the period of the general election. Pakistan's main opposition party has called for Khan's resignation, calling him the 'chosen one' rather than the military's 'chosen one' since he came to power, and formed the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance in the fall of 2020 for this purpose. . This spring, the opposition gained strength. At first glance, the opposition blamed the government and Khan for economic failure. But the underlying reason their maneuvers were successful was that Khan had lost the support of Pakistan`s military, which helped him rise to power.

Several factors were responsible for the fracture between Khan and the military, who previously had functioned on a much-touted “same page.” The biggest was an impasse over the transfer of the director general of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in October 2021. Khan refused to sign off on the director general`s transfer, already approved by the military, for weeks. The then-ISI chief was a Khan loyalist, and speculation was that Khan wanted him to be around for the next election (or perhaps even to appoint him the next army chief). Once Khan lost the military`s support — though the military said it had become neutral — space was allowed to the opposition to make their moves. Two small parties allied with Khan in the ruling coalition switched to the opposition, enough to deprive him of his razor-thin majority in the National Assembly. Khan hatched a conspiracy theory to blame for his government`s collapse — alleging, without evidence, U.S. “regime change” for following an “independent foreign policy,” and claiming “local abettors” were responsible — claims that Pakistan`s National Security Committee has rebuffed. But Khan and his allies have also alluded to the military being responsible for his exit — sometimes in veiled language and sometimes pointing fingers more directly at the “neutrals,” as they now refer to the military. In so doing, they are testing the limits of political confrontation with the military, receding only when it pushes back on their claims.