English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Russian
Spanish
Urdu
On 9th August 2022 Khawar Ghumman, bureau chief of Pakistan’s famous news channel ARY News broke news on PML (N) led government’s strategic media cell headed by famous ex-journalist Fahad Hussain. Khawar reported that this strategic media cell within the ruling PML party is using fake news campaigns against former PM Imran Khan and trying to create a rift between the Army establishment and Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf, Pakistan’s popular political party. As usual, the newsroom of ARY contacts Shabaz Gill for a beeper. Shabaz gill in his statement said that ordinary soldiers support Khan and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which enrages the government. He alleged there was a “strategic media cell” within the ruling PML party which was mounting a fake news campaign to harm Khan. He also suggested that army officers should not obey “illegal and unconstitutional orders” from their superiors.
ARY News started facing network disruption in Islamabad and then all over the country. The VP of ARY News Network took to Social media and shared a notice from the government media watchdog, which said that content aired on the station was a “clear and present threat to national security.” The notice said Gill’s comments were “tantamount to inciting the rank and file of armed forces towards revolt.”
All these developments were just the beginning of a massive crackdown on journalists and social media activists. The next day just when Shabaz Gill was returning from Bani Gala PTI Headquarters, his car was stopped by law enforcement agencies, Intelligence and then dragged out after breaking the windshield of his car. Gill was arrested on charges of colluding with a private TV news channel in carrying out anti-state propaganda. Notably, Pakistan’s regulatory watchdog PEMRA has alleged that the ARY News channel was airing “false, hateful and seditious” content based on “absolute disinformation with a clear and present threat to national security by instigating rebellion within the armed forces.
Soon after Gill’s arrest, Senior Journalist Aziz Syed of News International, reports in his vlog that Gill was taken to an unknown place and he is not been locked in the concerned Police station. This doesn’t come as surprise to anyone in the country, everyone knows that ISI and its operatives were behind this abduction and the police gave it legal cover.
As visuals of distressed and injured Shabaz Gill started to emerge on social media, Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan went on his social media accounts and shared a video of his close aid Shabaz Gill claiming that he was tortured mentally and physically including being subjected to sexual abuse. These videos came out as police escorted Gill to court in a wheelchair.
“All the pictures and videos show clearly Gill was tortured both mentally and physically incl sexual abuse – most too gruesome to relate. He was humiliated to break him down. I now have full detailed info. ICT police says it did not inflict any torture. So my question is: Who tortured Gill? There is a general perception in the public at large & in our minds too as to who could have carried out the gruesome torture. Remember the public will react. We will leave no stone unturned to find out those responsible & bring them to justice,” Imran Khan tweeted.
PPP leader Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar slammed the government for physical abuse against PTI leader Shahbaz Gill. Mustafa Nawaz raised his voice against the physical torture and abuse of Shahbaz Gill in his tweet that attracted massive attention on social media. His statements came as a shock for many people since his party, PPP, is part of the current government setup. He questioned the brazen silence of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Khokhar also admonished the silence of other political leaders on their silence. He claims to have seen the disturbing images of physical torture on Shahbaz Gill. PPP leader asked PM Sharif if he is complacent in this torture on him or if he lacks the power to speak against it. “Have seen very disturbing pictures of physical torture on Shahbaz Gill. No matter how much you disagree with or dislike him, a man’s dignity should not have been violated like this. Either the govt of Mian Shahbaz is complicit or spineless to prevent such atrocity! Shame on us,” said Khokhar in his tweet.
“Include the so-called Pakistan Democratic Movement in it too. Serving democracy by torturing political opponents. What a farce!” he added further.
Moreover, the Federal Minster of Railways, Khwaja Saad Rafiq from PML-N also condemned the torture on Gill and suggest that matter should be investigated.
One has to understand that if leaders of a political party that is part of the government spoke against the torture and questioned the silence of the Government and then actually did this to Shabaz Gill. It is obvious that everything what happened to Gill and Media organization was initiated by the Army establishment headed by General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Senior Journalists like Arshid Sharif of ARY News, Shabir Shakir, and Arif Hameed Bhati had to flee the country after receiving death threats and their programs were also forced to go off air. A senior Pakistani journalists and political analysts was also assaulted by unidentified masked men, who tore his clothes, as he left his office in the Punjab province, a day after he termed Pakistan’s powerful army generals “property dealers”.
Ayaz Amir said that the masked men not only “hit him and tore his clothes, they also took away his cellphone and wallet. They left when people started gathering on the busy road”. Pictures circulating on Twitter showed the journalist sitting in a car with his shirt torn. Later on a news show, Ayaz Amir confessed that he was being regularly given threats and was advised by the ‘ Agriculture Department not to back Imran Khan or criticize PML(N) led Government. The Army establishment is famously also called as Agricultural Department by politicians to save themselves from any action. On the next day, The prime minister of the country Shabaz Sharif condemned this incident and it was debated all over the country how helpless a prime minister can be that his agencies are out berserk assaulting reputed personalities and he can’t do anything.
After a few weeks, prime-time anchorperson Jameel Farouqi of Bol News was picked up in Karachi and then taken to Islamabad by federal agencies. He was arrested for a sarcastic humor joke in which he criticized the military. While transferring him, handcuffed Jameel inside Karachi Airport cried in front of reporters, and said to them,” there were some men masked with FIA ( Federal Investigating Agency) who took off my clothes and kept me naked, took videos. They tortured me.” There were also visible bruises on his neck.
Before three weeks, Pakistani authorities indefinitely shut down Bol News, another news channel seen as supportive of Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
Sami Ibraham, president, and managing director of Bol news told Al Jazeera there is pressure on the management to remove a few individuals from the company, including himself. “On the face of it, it is the incumbent government exerting pressure, but we have not relented and not a single person has been removed,” he said.
This is not the first time that a state institution like Army in Pakistan has taken matters into its hand behind a facade of political government, in the era of Military Dictator, General Zia ul Haq over 120 newspaper employees, mostly press workers, were arrested. Many of them were tried before summary military courts and sentenced to jail terms ranging from six months to one year of rigorous imprisonment with fines. Four journalists, who went out to abuse the military authorities in the military courts, were awarded punishment by lashes.
There is a famous term which has been always discussed in the sections of political and army establishments of Pakistan i.e ”Bajwa Doctrine”. The Bajwa Doctrine is nothing else than what his predecessor has been doing, planning against elected governments and then toppling them. But here this particular doctrine is different in approach, Qamar Bajwa slowly consolidated his power and then legitimize it under a facade of political government. What happened to Imran Khan’s government is a classic example. It is widely reported that the spark of distress between Imran Khan and Bajwa started after Khan started challenging Military intrusion in political affairs. First, he blocked the direct appointment of the new ISI chief by Bajwa, which was a job to be done by the chief executive of the country i.e Prime Minister Imran Khan. And then he directed Qamar Bajwa to send him names properly and after the thorough interview, he will appoint anyone. Being aware of Imran Khan’s uncompromising aggressive nature, Bajwa did a tactical retreat and followed the process accordingly. For Bajwa, this was not done and he and his close military generals found this as a potential challenge to the military establishment, they started taking support plugged off from the government knowing that the alliance parties are controlled by them, be it MQM and BAP.
For the last 6 years as Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Qamar Bajwa has been asserting his institutional presence, defying governmental preferences, and openly holding court with his holistic vision for Pakistan that has grandiosely been described as the “Bajwa Doctrine”.
The former prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif alleged that Bajwa was behind his disqualification from the Prime Minister’s office by putting pressure on the judiciary and the Supreme Court. He also alleged that Bajwa was also involved in rigging the general election. Subsequently, Muhammad Safdar Awan, son-in-law of Nawaz Sharif was arrested allegedly through pressure in the aftermath of the enforced disappearance of Sindh Police’s provincial senior police officer Mushtaq Mahar.
On 19 August 2019, his tenure as army chief was extended for another three years, starting from November 2019 until November 2022, by Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan and now in many private meetings with journalists, Khan accepted that it was his biggest mistake to give an extension.
In a veiled attack on Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, former prime minister Imran Khan said on Twitter that “some elements” in the powerful establishment who indulged in “bad practices” were responsible for his unceremonious ouster from power.
“There are also humans in institutions. If one or two individuals do something wrong, the entire institution is not responsible. If one person (in an apparent reference to Army
chief Gen. Bajwa) makes a mistake, this does not mean that the whole institution is at fault,” Imran Khan said on Twitter.
Photo : A collage of pictures showing General Qmar Bajwa with four different Prime Ministers in his single tenure.
Bajwa has now found courts as a new friend in asserting a second-dimensional authority on Pakistan. His former DG ISPR many times in his pressers criticized NGOs or political parties for giving statements against the judiciary under the Nawaz-led government. In one of his pressers, Asif Gafoor said that “destabilizing the judiciary or ridiculing its verdicts could land us in political disarray. Anyone who is indignant with the Supreme Court decisions (should) not be allowed to humiliate or raise question marks on the integrity of the honourable judges”.
One fails to understand, under what authority, a military spokesperson has given such political statements until they are not being backed by courts. If they found that any judge is going against military interferences, they use governments for taking action against them. Army with help of the federal law minister of the Imran Khan-led government had filed a reference against justice Faiz Issa for tax evasion. Later Imran Khan termed the PTI government’s decision to file a reference against Supreme Court Justice Qazi Faez Isa a “mistake”, saying it “should not have unnecessarily confronted the judiciary”. One of the close aides of Imran Khan, Shireen Mazari also claimed that the reference against Justice Isa was initiated by law minister Farogh Naseem, who belongs to MQM. MQM (Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan) is believed to be close to Military establishment.
Imran Khan as PM in a policy statement speech at an Islamabad think tank criticized the USA’s policy of interfering in internal matters of Pakistan and after only one day on the same platform, General Bajwa asserted his authority and in his statement hailed the USA, expected that the friendship between these two countries gets more strengthened. Policymakers were surprised in the seminar about how a subordinate openly defied the chief executive of the country.
What Bajwa has done to Pakistan is now visible in the IMF report which suggested that Pakistan is heading towards Sri Lanka-like situation due to political instability which has inflicted financial crises. As per Pakistan’s annual inflation report, the country reached a record mark of 21.3% in June this year. The figures were the highest in the last 13 years.
Bajwa doesn’t need to coup now directly, his military establishment is already in the roots of administration and takes pleasure of a de facto dictatorship with the help of a political government imagination. For all the reasons based on facts, Pakistani civilian leadership has no control over the country’s domestic and foreign policies, and the only one who is holding the stick to control the country is Bajwa himself.
About Writer: Kamran Ashraf Bhat is a Graduate Student Researcher at Bahcesehir University’s department of Cinema and television, Istanbul and former Joint Editor of Daily Inside Kashmir. Kamran Ashraf Bhat writes on geopolitical, geostrategic, environmental and social issues.
