PakistanI federal cabinet approves sweeping changes to Pakistan’s defence laws, amending the Army, Air Force and Navy Acts. On paper, this is another legal step in what Pakistan describes as an evolving defence and constitutional framework. But the more interesting story is how the Sharif government was brought around to approving it.
The Army gets the Supreme Court to issue an order that Imran Khan be shifted to a hospital within 48 hours. Not immediately, not released, but within 48 hours, so there is enough time to create panic in the PML-N, which knows exactly what the return of the Imran Khan question can do to its already precarious political position.
And then comes the pressure to approve the amendments. This was a rather clever piece of blackmail: create uncertainty around Imran Khan, let the civilian government panic, and then use that panic to push through sweeping changes to the Army, Air Force and Navy laws.
This is how military overreach in Pakistan is becoming more sophisticated. The Army does not necessarily have to take over the government. It can keep the politicians in office and still make them understand where the real limits of their freedom lie.
And this is what makes this more consequential than another amendment to another set of defence laws. Pakistan is already a nuclear-armed country where the military has repeatedly shown that civilian governments operate within limits set by Rawalpindi. With elections under a cloud, Imran Khan still politically relevant despite being in prison, and civilian institutions steadily losing ground, the question is what happens when these temporary arrangements start becoming permanent features of the state.
