Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks with Reuters during an interview in Lahore, Pakistan, March 17, 2023. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro/File Photo
“If Imran Khan was released tomorrow, hypothetically, he wouldn’t do anything that would effectively damage the country,” a close aide of ex-Pakistani PM Imran Khan was quoted as saying in media reports.
Describing Imran as “magnanimous”, the aide Zulfiqar Bhukari said “You don’t go loggerheads with the establishment, with the military leader.”
Bhutto’s remarks suggested a willingness to mend ties with the military, that engineered Imran’s removal through a rigged election in Feb 2024. Such a move could ease one of the most intense political confrontations in Pakistan’s recent history, although it remains unclear whether Khan himself would endorse the approach.
There was no word from the government or military with reference to Bukhari’s remarks but he had indicated that the PTI was not holding talks with the military. He then went on to descrive Munir, who also holds the rank of field marshal, as Pakistan’s most powerful man.
If Munir woke up “one fine morning” and said: “Enough, I need to show I’m the father of the nation at the moment”, then he could “rub his healing hand on to the country,” Bukhari said. “I would feel that every political prisoner would be out within 24 hours.”
Analysts, however, cautioned that Khan’s position could differ from that of PTI leaders who have avoided arrest. Pakistani authorities have dismantled much of the party’s political apparatus, while many of its former senior officials remain in prison.
It’s unclear if “PTI’s leadership have the capacity, so long as Khan is in jail, to present a common front in any potential engagement or negotiation with the state”, said Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
Although Khan was back in Adiala Jail after a brief hospital visit, it revived hopes among his supporters that his period of imprisonment may be ending. Such a prospect would be distinctly unwelcome for Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his brother Nawaz of the PML- N which wants to hold onto power.
