Syed Khalid Muhammad, Executive Director of CommandEleven, an Islamabad-based consultancy & think tank focused on national security matters, declared that all political parties in Pakistan gain political traction from their ability to bring Pakistan to a standstill to force their narrative to be heard.

 

“We’ve seen this with the Pakistan People’s Party and the more militant Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz & Altaf Hussain’s Muttahida Qaumi Movement. The difference between Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the others is that PTI actually has real national, and international, support,” Khalid Muhammad stated in a conversation with Sputnik India.

 

He thinks that certain factors are at play, when one talks about the scope for reconciliation between the opposition and the treasury benches in Pakistan.

 

First, the current leadership of PTI is not loyal to Imran Khan at all. Since Imran has been in jail, the people selected to lead the party have gained political mileage for themselves, but not among the worker base, which is extremely upset with their leadership of the party.

 

Second, the establishment must also be willing to agree to the terms that Imran Khan sets forward, not those at the negotiating table because at the end of the day, it’s Imran Khan who will decide if he accepts the reconciliation or not, the think tanker elaborated.

 

Third, Imran has never shown the willingness to surrender to negotiated terms. There have been numerous rounds of negotiations by the establishment with Imran himself, where he has clearly set forth his demands for reconciliation, Khalid Muhammad asserted.

Also, the narrative of Operation Goldsmith is an amateur attempt by a select group of politicians to brand Imran Khan again as an agent of Israel, which has been tried many times before, also creates problems for Islamabad. The current government and media touts are very quickly pushing themselves into a corner that will not be easy to emerge from because of their own immature and undiplomatic behaviour, the Islamabad-based expert evaluated.

 

“As an apolitical observer, I can honestly say that the government in Islamabad is going to face significant backlash after January 20th when Donald Trump takes the oath of office as President of the United States. Pakistan has faced sanctions many times from America, which have hampered national objectives and growth. This time, they are literally attempting to pick a fight well outside their weight class and aren’t mentally or economically ready for the backlash Islamabad will receive,” he concluded.