By Shazia Anwer Cheema
Whosoever has political sense with a broader global view can understand that PTI since long served the agenda of the Global North while SCO, BRICS, and CPEC are initiatives of the Global South. This might be a reason PTI was an adversary of CPEC when it was in power from 2018 to 2022 and halted this flagship project of the Chinese Dream.
One can cite over a dozen instances where PTI worked not only against China but also against other important countries of the Global South like Saudi Arabia, and Russia, and also slowed down Pakistan’s relations with Central Asia and with Türkiye. PTI’s founding chairman Imran Khan did not attend a joint session of Parliament that Turkish President Erdogan addressed. PTI’s Punjab government terminated the project with a Turkish firm and even arrested officers of this solid waste management project.
Over 70 percent of members of the cabinet of Imran Khan had dual nationalities of Global North including his Advisor for National Security. However, this grave information was not allowed to be highlighted during the PTI era. When Imran Khan was voted out in April 2022, the entire Western media started hue and cry that “Pakistan’s always-troubled democracy is on the brink once again”; demanding the Biden administration to ‘stand in favor of democracy in Pakistan, the rule of law, and the supremacy of its constitution’ although Khan was voted out by the national Assembly while following the Constitution of Pakistan.
Some Western writers urged that ‘the Biden administration should explicitly speak up against violations of the rule of law and the country’s constitution — especially against the idea that civilians may be tried in military courts in the country. One can only laugh at such statements of Western writers because the provision of a trial of civilians is provided within Pakistan’s Constitution.
On the other front, the majority of the US’s important think tanks that have a long history of working very closely with the Department of State and neocons like Zalmay Khalilzad stood in favor of Imran Khan. According to PTI’s circles, Zalmay was in constant contact with Imran Khan even during the 2014 sit-in outside the Parliament building. Even at that time, one could find glaring support for Imran Khan in foreign media that was reporting news contrary to facts such as “an estimated 50,000 protesters, led by an opposition politician and a Canada-based cleric, had been holding demonstrations in Islamabad”, although local media sitting in Islamabad knew that the number of protesters during all 126-days of a sit-in outside parliament never went beyond the figure of three to five thousand a day. Foreign media has more resources and competency than local Pakistani media but reporting style by foreign media was one-sided during the four-month-long sit-in. Some journalists who had retired or left their jobs with foreign media now in their private sittings accepted that PTI’s sit-in achieved its targets as Khan’s protests caused a delay in the launching of CPEC till 2015 when the project was hurled without any huge ceremony that was earlier planned, and the Chinese President was scheduled to join the ceremony. They also now accepted that there was ‘huge pressure’ from their offices to promote Khan’s sit-in as a success and a ‘huge gathering’.
PMLN’s politicians claimed in 2014 September the government of Pakistan contacted the Canadian embassy in Islamabad complaining that Dr. Tahirul Qadari who is a Canadian citizen was involved in destabilizing Pakistan and demanded the Canadian government take action against its citizens for harming the state of Pakistan. According to sources, the Canadian embassy refused to intervene. Sources said that the response of the Canadian embassy was shocking for the then Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif but he could not do anything.
Throughout PTI’s ‘political struggle’ the target had been China as its CPEC. Some political researchers claim that the rise of Imran Khan is directly or indirectly linked to the CPEC project. On 18 February 2013, the government of Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP-Parliamentarian) awarded a contract for the construction and operation of Gwadar Port to a Chinese state-owned enterprise and everybody knew that it was the first step to linking China with the hot waters of Indo-pacific through the already available Karakoram Highway (KKH). In May 2013, the general elections were held in Pakistan and PTI successfully bagged seats to get the government in KPK province which is the main artery linking KKH to Gwadar Port. PTI which never got more than eight seats in the National Assembly in the past suddenly rose as the third largest party by bagging 35 National Assembly seats and completely wiped out Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. When PTI became one of the main stakeholders of Pakistan’s political system, it started attempts to halt the CPEC project but failed to do so. Nonetheless, after getting power in KPK, Punjab, and the Centre after the 2018 general elections, CPEC could not move to the next phase for 42 months.
After losing his government due to a vote of no-confidence, Khan’s hatred for the country was exposed instantly and he launched ‘Cognitive Warfare’, attacking state institutions having the strong backing of domestic as well as foreign media. Cognitive Warfare is a security threat for developing countries based on spreading disinformation to change people’s perceptions and thus alter their self-identity.
Launching cognitive warfare against any country needs the content to create ‘selective blindness’ and ‘misleading expectations’ among the public and these are usually injected through mainstream media platforms, social media, and NGO networking. This is what Chief of Pakistan Army Gen Asim Munir called ‘digital terrorism’ and he rightfully believes that Pakistan has been a target of this digital terrorism for long. Skeleton has come out from the cupboard and state institutions understand that the country is facing digital terrorism and PTI is directly involved in it, this is the foremost responsibility of the state to take appropriate measures before it is too late because PTI’s conduct frustrates SCO Summit and left no doubt that this group wants to do with this country.
Alas if you watch statements of office bearers and ministers of ruling parties in Pakistan, you can find more than five positions on PTI’s moves to make SCO Summit a failure. Such a situation represents communication gaps among party hierarchy or the absence of one solid narrative and this situation of having no stated position from the ruling cadre definitely makes things complex for listeners, readers, and viewers in Pakistan and it ultimately favors PTI. “A wise enemy is better than a foolish friend.”
