The Pakistani army, once a ‘sacred cow’, is attacked by protesters

A crowd of protesters pushes through the gates of the National Army Headquarters. An angry mob sets fire to the residence of a senior military official. Protesters loot a school run by a paramilitary force.

Once unthinkable, the violent protest scenes that erupted across Pakistan on Tuesday after the arrest of former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, seemed to cross a line against defying the military that has rarely been broken in Pakistan’s turbulent history. Since the country’s founding 75 years ago, the military has held firm control of the country’s politics and foreign policy, carrying out three successful coups and ruling the country directly for decades.

Even under civilian governments, military leaders have maintained an iron – albeit veiled – grip on power, bringing in their preferred politicians and driving out those who have fallen out of line. Few dared open resistance.

When politicians or other citizens complained, it was almost always in code, vaguely speaking of “the establishment” or “the sacred cow,” rather than explicitly mentioning the country’s military or its powerful intelligence agency. They knew what could happen if they continued: disappearances, arrests, lives in exile.

Then came Imran Khan, a former global cricketer turned populist politician and once a fixture in the fashionable London crowd, who had languished on the sidelines of Pakistani politics for over two decades since retiring from the sport.

Mr Khan rallied power from the streets and vowed to tackle the country’s deep economic problems and end endemic corruption while offering an alternative to the country’s entrenched political dynasties. At the time, the army was accused of paving the way to power for Mr Khan in 2018, pressuring his opponents to withdraw or switch sides and swindling the news media.

But relations took a turn for the worse after he was ousted as prime minister in April 2022 in a parliamentary vote of no confidence, with Mr Khan lashing out at the generals, accusing them of plotting against him and his political movement.

For months, Mr. Khan named a senior general of Pakistan’s military intelligence and accused the commander of being behind a shooting that left him wounded in November. And he had skipped court for a slew of corruption cases filed against him – nearly challenging the authorities to arrest him. His supporters followed suit, taking to social media to discredit and accuse the military of undermining democracy.

On Tuesday, authorities appeared to have had enough and arrested Mr Khan in an apparent attempt to retake control.

If the arrest was in many ways a return to the old order of Pakistani politics, the reaction to it was anything but. When Mr Khan was taken away, his supporters erupted in protests against military installations across the country – spurred on by his exhortation to fight. The crowd channeled both the anger that had built up since Mr Khan was removed from office and the frustration over a severe economic crisis, in which record inflation drove up the price of basic goods

Demonstrations continued in major cities on Wednesday, heightening unrest and prompting the army to deploy units in at least two provinces. In some places, protesters fiercely fought security forces, who brandished tear gas grenades and batons in an attempt to disperse the crowd.

Many officials fear that prolonged protests could bring the country to a standstill and that the government led by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif will struggle to contain them. easily undone.

“This has become a perfect political storm with very unpredictable consequences,” said Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States and Britain. “In the past, the military acted as arbiter of political disputes. Today, the country has no institution that can play that role.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Khan at a police station in the capital Islamabad, which has now become a courtroom, where a court had authorized authorities to detain him for eight days in connection with a corruption case involving the transfer of property. Mr Khan denied the allegations and expressed concern for his safety while in custody, local news media reported.

Separately, Mr Khan was also charged in another way case for illegally selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister.

At least five people have been killed in the protests since Tuesday, local news outlets reported, and more than 1,000 people have been arrested in the Punjab province alone. Authorities have also shut down the internet in parts of the country in an attempt to quell the unrest.

But the crackdown has not discouraged protesters, and the army, under a new army chief, General Syed Asim Munir, is in a precarious position.

Because Mr Khan has cultivated deep support within the military’s own ranks, an escalation in the crackdown could create a rift that further destabilizes an institution already facing one of its most serious crises since 2007, when the last military chief who seized power, General Pervez Musharraf resigned amid public outcry.

Given the tensions in the army, General Munir “may be under pressure from the military networks, perhaps some senior generals, to pull back, take a turn and reconcile” with Mr Khan, said Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert at the United States Peace Institute.

A crackdown on demonstrators also threatens to further erode military support, which has endured for decades despite the insistence of the generals to shape the country’s politics.

Many Pakistanis still view the military as a moderating force that helps keep corrupt political dynasties in line. Soldiers have been on the frontline in relief efforts following devastating floods and other disasters, and in the crackdown on Pakistani Taliban terrorist campaigns in 2014 and 2017.

That popularity continued for years after Mr Khan’s ascension to Prime Minister. But when Mr Khan was removed from power by parliament in April, it was again with the perception of a military go-ahead to remove him, after he had begun antagonizing the generals.

The criticism of Mr. Khan on the army has since disappeared resonated even beyond his existing support base, and voters rewarded his party with significant victories in elections for vacant parliamentary seats in several provinces. Mr Khan has also called on the government to hold early general elections.

“It’s hard to see the situation deescalating from here,” Madiha Afzal, an associate at Washington’s Brookings Institution, wrote in a text message. Khan’s popular support has so far shielded him from the assertiveness of the establishment. But now that the establishment has asserted itself, it is hard to see it backing down any time soon.”

She added: “Voltage, perilous times for Pakistan.”

Salman Massood reporting contributed.