Global Watch | How Pakistan military has carried out a silent coup

A brief video clip from a news interview has been circulating in Pakistan’s social media. In the particular clip, a news anchor asks a former member of National Assembly from Grand Democratic Alliance, Saira Banu, to reflect on the prevailing situation in the country and the functioning of its interim government. She responds by sharing an anecdote involving her children and states that when her youngest child sees his older sibling playing a video game, he stubbornly insists on playing as well. She cleverly hands over a battery-less TV remote control to her younger kid and as the elder kid enjoys the video game, the younger one fiddles with the lifeless remote, believing he is in control of the game. Banu wisely leaves the conclusion and metaphorical comparison to the common sense of the audience. This situation mirrors the current state of Pakistan. On paper, while the country has an interim government based in Islamabad; in reality it is playing with a lifeless remote as the affairs are effectively managed from Rawalpindi, which houses the General Headquarters (GHQ) of its powerful army. It is no secret that the army remains a powerful institution in Pakistan whose influence extends to every sphere of the country. Since 9 May, 2023, riots, Pakistan Army has executed a silent coup in the country. It pressurised Shehbaz Sharif government to give it a wider mandate in the affairs of the country through controversial amendments to Official Secrets Act (OSA) and Pakistan Army Act (PAA). It has heavily penalised any form of dissent against it, as reflected by a gag on media and arrest of prominent journalists and rights activists, thereby creating an environment of fear. There is no media institution which isn’t towing the line given by military establishment. This reflects how the military has accorded itself a role of judge jury and executioner as hundreds of political activists, led by former prime minister Imran Khan and his party colleagues, aside from human rights activists and civil society members, are being tried in sham military courts under the flimsy charges and without any judicial oversight. This silent coup was given the final shape through the appointment of a pro-military puppet Anwarul Haq Kakkar as the head of the interim government. This was done to ensure that the army’s grip over the Pakistan’s polity remains unchallenged. The interim government has been packed with small time politicians nurtured by the military establishment. This has made Army the de facto ruler with absolute authority to take any kind of decisions without any accountability. The result is that there have been several authoritarian decisions that includes the xenophobic targeting and profiling of Afghan refugees in the country. It is well known fact that by providing military support to Afghan Taliban in taking over of Afghanistan in August 2021, Pakistan had rendered millions of Afghans homeless. Alongside this political engineering, Pakistan Army has been placing its serving and retired officers in positions of prominence through its doctrine of strategic appointments across the state machinery. As such, majority of influential governmental agencies such as National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), among others. The assignment of military officers to crucial leadership roles, without adhering to appointment protocols and professional qualifications, grants the military a substantial influence in shaping economic policies and decision-making that align with their interests. As such, NADRA is headed by Lt Gen Muhammad Munir Afsar, WAPDA by Lt Gen (Retd) Sajjad Ghani, NAB by Lt Gen Nazir Ahmed Butt, and Suparco by Maj Gen Amer Nadeem, among others. In recent months, Pakistan Army has brazenly bypassed the civil executive’s role in foreign affairs of the country as well, which demonstrated how the military establishment has effectively taken over the external and internal affairs of the country. Army chief General Asim Munir has taken a series of bilateral visits to multiple countries in recent months. For instance, General Munir visited Turkey in mid-September and held bilateral talks with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan along with the country’s broader civil and military leadership. Pakistan Army’s media wing, Inter-Servies Public Relations (ISPR), described General Munir’s aimed at enhancing their “historic diplomatic and military ties”. Prior to that, the Pakistan Army chief made a four-day trip to Beijing in April 2023 where he held talks with Chinese president Xi Jinping and a five-day visit to United Kingdom in February 2023. General Munir also visited Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in January 2023. This demonstrates the extended role that the army plays in Pakistan’s foreign relations wherein its chief undertakes the bilateral visits and calls on the heads of the states of different countries instead of the so-called civilian leadership. Likewise, the foreign delegations visiting Pakistan prioritise their meetings with Army chief than the civilian executive, exposing the role of military in the governmental affairs of the country. For instance, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who has been deposed since, during his May 2023 visit called on General Asim Munir and reiterated Beijing “expects to work with Pakistan to achieve higher-quality cooperation, jointly meet challenges, and pursue common development and prosperity”, a diplomatic language generally used with their ministerial counterparts. In terms of the managing the economic revival of the country that is at the brink of default, Pakistan Army officially overtook the leadership role in the “Economic Revival Plan” in June 2023 by entrusting itself with “a key role in the coordination of the projects”. The government asserted that this plan will help in exploiting Pakistan’s “untapped potential in key sectors through local development and foreign investments mainly from Gulf countries and expediting project implementation”. In other words, this gives the military establishment and overarching oversight on Pakistan’s capital resources and a carta blanche to exploit these resources for its advantage. It also offers the military impunity from any popular criticism given this extended role was facilitated by the Shehbaz Sharif government. Following this, Pakistan Army has widened the ambit of its vast economic empire, wherein it remains involved in manufacturing of everyday goods from toothpaste to largescale construction projects, besides running a parallel yet unaccountable state through its subsidiaries. In September 2023, a Nikkei Asia report revealed that Pakistani military is taking over 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) of farm land in its Punjab province to “grow cash crops such as wheat, cotton and sugar cane, as well as vegetables and fruit”. This is aside from over 11.58 million acres of the state land already under its control across Pakistan, of which it has distributed nearly half of 6.8 million acres to its officer cadre for private use. This demonstrates that the powerful military has committed itself to loot the state resources to sustain its vast economic empire, whose majority of the profits are pocketed by the officers for their personal gains at the cost of the large homeless and poverty-stricken common Pakistanis. In the face of these alarming developments, it is evident that Pakistan is experiencing a profound transformation in its power structure. The metaphor of a powerless control system in the hands of those who should be governing serves as a stark reminder of the extent to which the military establishment has come to dominate the nation’s affairs. From influencing political decisions to shaping economic policies and even taking control of foreign relations, the Pakistani Army’s encroachment into virtually every aspect of governance demonstrates how the military establishment has silently conducted a coup without firing a bullet. The writer is an author and columnist and has written several books. He tweets @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .