On Sunday (April 10) morning, social media was rife with claims that Pakistani Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Bajwa roughed up Prime Minister Imran Khan at his residence on Saturday night for allegedly trying to remove him and changing the leadership of the Pakistani army.
The development comes at a time when Pakistan is going through a period of political turmoil, with the Imran Khan government failing to win the no-confidence motion. New PM Shehbaz Sharif is likely to take office soon and form a new government.
One Twitter user Ali claimed, “Around 10:00 at night PM denotified Gen Bajwa. Meanwhile, a helicopter arrived at PM House. At PM House, soldiers stopped the speaker in the waiting room. Imran was waiting for Gen Faiz but Gen Bajwa himself was in the helicopter. (The) meeting started in the room and it was a very bad one.”
Another Pakistani Twitter user alleged, “He didn’t hand over. He was forced out at gunpoint. Bajwa and DGISI came in helicopter, entered PM House and misbehaved with PM. It is a coup with civilian facade. America, 3 stooges, judges, and Army chief were complicit. III Brigade was deployed. They will now eliminate IK.”
Another user Marium wondered whether Imran Khan was indeed slapped and assaulted in the aftermath of ‘denotifying’ General Bajwa as the Chief of Army Staff.
“Interestingly, Imran was expecting Faiz to arrive when a helicopter landed at PM House but to his utter shock, it was Gen Bajwa, who in his mind had already been removed. That’s when he decided to call it quits. It was his last roll of the dice. And wrong numbers had come up,” wrote another Pakistani user.
A Twitter user Zameer Afaqi claimed, “Sad. According to sources, IK passed an order to dismiss Bajwa but defense secretary didn’t move the summary. Also, PM house was bugged so Bajwa got aware in time. He reached PM house in a helicopter and his men thrashed IK. He was slapped and kicked several times before he gave up.”
Citing sources, another Pakistan claimed that Imran Khan was locked up for an hour by General Bajwa. “Imran khan removed Bajwa last night, (and) appointed a new officer. But, when (the) desired helicopter landed on PM house, it was Bajwa instead of his desired Officer. IK was locked up for an hour,” he asserted.
Counterclaims are also being made on Twitter by Pakistanis, citing security sources, that General Bajwa did not meet Imran Khan at Prime Minister’s Office on April 9 evening.
Security sources confirm that COAS Gen Bajwa did not visit the Prime Minister’s Office last evening. In fact, last time both met was at the National Security Committee huddle. Any news about COAS landing at PMO Saturday evening in a helicopter is incorrect, security officials say
— Salman Masood (@salmanmasood) April 10, 2022
Interestingly, a petition was also filed before the Islamabad High Court, seeking a stay on ‘attempts’ by Imran Khan to ‘denotify’ General Qamar Bajwa as COAS. It was filed by Advocate Adnan Iqbal, citing Article 199 of the Pakistani Constitution.
The petitioner had accused Khan of using ‘arbitrary powers’ for personal and political gains. He prayed before the court that the notification against General Bajwa be termed ‘illegal, insignificant and void.’ Meanwhile, Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chowdhury denied the allegations of trying to de-seat General Bajwa as the COAS.
He claimed, “The government fully understands the importance of the army chief and Pakistan Army as an institution. Reports that anyone is even thinking of changing the leadership of Pakistan Army are baseless rumours and lies. This is being done under an agenda. The government condemns these rumours and completely denies them.”
حکومت کو آرمی چیف اور پاکستان کی افواج کی ادارہ جاتی تنظیم کا مکمل ادراک ہے ایسی افواہیں کہ فوج کی قیادت میں تبدیلی کا سوچا بھی جا رہا ہے انتہائ لغو اور بے بنیاد ہیں اور ایک منصوبے کے تحت پھیلائ جا رہی ہیں حکومت ان افواہوں کی مذمت کرتی ہے اور مکمل تردید کرتی ہے
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) April 9, 2022
Imran Khan loses no-confidence motion
Imran Khan’s tenure as Prime Minister of Pakistan was finally over on Saturday night as he lost the no-confidence motion in Pakistan’s National Assembly. Khan joined the long list of Pakistani Prime Ministers who have failed to complete their full tenure as per the official Pakistani Constitution.
Since Pakistan’s inception, no PM has managed to survive the full term, and Imran Khan didn’t turn out to be an exception. This time, there was no direct coup by the Pakistan Army, and Imran was displaced by a show of opposition unity, and by America as per Imran’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Pakistan Army, which had allegedly installed Imran as the PM of the country, didn’t come to his support as he lost the battle in Supreme Court and then the National Assembly.
In the run-up to the no-confidence vote, Imran Khan and his party colleagues repeatedly said that their government was being destabilized by a foreign power, namely the United States of America. They said that Imran Khan is being punished for visiting Russia ahead of the Russia-Ukraine war. However, this attempt to blame foreign powers didn’t work, and Imran Khan ended up losing his post as the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
The opposition parties in Pakistan had accused Khan of corruption and economic mismanagement, along with the prevailing high inflation and a weakening currency. While Imran tried to rally support around him through religion and by claiming a foreign conspiracy against Pakistan, eventually it wasn’t enough.
