Why Imran Khan raises 1971? Is he comparing himself to Mujibar Rahman?

Imran Khan continues to hit the headlines and trigger new crises for the Government of the day and the military leadership – who, for all practical purposes, once helped change his political fortunes.

The country is faced with an extremely perilous situation, and it is certainly more polarised and violence-prone than ever. There seems to be a breakdown of the system; even the Army is clueless about handling him or dealing with the escalating clashes between the institutions and between a growing section of Pakistani masses with the sacred cow called the Army.

Now Imran Khan has pitched in a bouncer by raking up the gory chapter in Pakistani history – the 1971 and the creation of Bangladesh. The political development marked with intense military torture and assistance by India to the Mukti Bahini remains one of the worst experiences for a ‘haari hui kaum’ (a nation of losers).

“In March 1971, I had gone to play an under-19 cricket match, I still remember what kind of hatred (kitini nafrat) the East Pakistan people had harboured for us. They controlled media then, and they are controlling it even now,” Imran Khan said. His reference is perhaps a multi-pronged strategy. It’s a bouncer- to use the cricket similarity – wherein the rivals may lose out a wicket, and the opponent’s batsman, too get retired hurt.

Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa is now a retired military chief. Only recently, he had said that the 1971 debacle was a “political failure” for Islamabad and not a military failure. “Our soldiers fought courageously….,” Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had remarked.

Imran Khan hit many birds with his 1971 reference. He is reminding the Pakistani Army of the humiliated defeat it suffered at the hands of Mukti Bahini and Indian forces. The message to Army was, “Go and fight the Indian army….do not show your strengths to civilians here and stop meddling into politics”.

The fact of the matter is Pakistani Army has an obsession with meddling with politics. They will play ‘who is our favourite neta’ and so on. But Imran Khan changed the game in 2020-21 itself. He started playing up ‘my favourite Generals and those who are not’. Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa fell into the second category, and there were many others.

The army establishment was thus irked, and subsequently, Imran Khan was voted out of office in a parliamentary no-trust exercise — which now looks mostly orchestrated. PPP of Bhuttos and Zardaris came close to the outfit of Sharifs was not a path-breaking alliance. It was a military-sponsored indirect coup.

But once in office, Imran Khan appeared more influential and popular. His appeal galvanized people, and today there is every chance if there is election, Imran Khan will make a comeback. The Army is unnerved just by thinking about such a possibility.

Here comes Imran Khan’s reference to the 1971 nightmare in Pakistan’s history, and the former cricket icon is, in a veiled manner, comparing himself with the legendary Banga Bandhu – Mujibar Rahman.

The former Prime Minister Imran Khan has alleged that the country’s military establishment wants to imprison him for the next ten years under sedition charges. This is essentially to disqualify him from contesting and preventing him from becoming Prime Minister yet again. In 1970-71, Mujibar Rahman was denied the opportunity to be Prime Minister of a united Pakistan when he had the numbers in the House.

The Awami League gained an absolute majority, winning 160 of the 162 general seats and all seven women’s seats in East Pakistan. The PPP won only 81 general seats and five women’s seats, all in West Pakistan. The 300-member National Assembly was not allowed to be convened by President Yahya Khan and the PPP chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who did not want a party from East Pakistan ruling Pakistan. This was the beginning of 1971 and the split of Pakistan.

Hence, Imran Khan’s rhetoric about 1971 is more than significant. These words do not flow out simply out of love for the Bengali population by the former cricket icon.

Notably, in one of the many media interviews, the outgoing army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, also admitted that for seven decades, the Army had “unconstitutionally interfered in politics”.

Analysts in Pakistan say the Army is like an outer shield meant to ‘protecting’ people from outside attacks. But the story goes that the cantonment bosses have repeatedly intruded into the vehicle’s interior and always gave unto themselves the job of selecting the driver (read Prime Minister).

Even Imran Khan was one such driver in 2018 when the Army projected Imran Khan as an honest politician against corrupt Sharifs, Bhuttos, and Zardaris. But once the driver Imran Khan wanted to take his own route and driving routine, the problems started.

“…the proposed establishment of military courts and deployment of the army in major cities would further lengthen the institution’s shadow, which already eclipses a tottering civilian Government,” runs an article in the newspaper ‘Dawn’.