DNA Exclusive: Is Pakistan heading towards coup d'etat? Pak Army's love lost for PM Imran Khan? An analysis

New Delhi: The first coup in Pakistan took place only after a few years of independence. Now the same thing can happen once again. Pakistan's army is now disillusioned with Prime Minister Imran Khan and could possibly move against his government.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Tuesday (November 9) discussed how the Pakistan government is on the verge of collapse owing to several factors.

The three main reasons for the possible fall of Pak government are:

1. Imran Khan's relations with the Pakistan Army have significantly deteriorated.

2. The Pakistan government has bowed down before radical Islamic organisations.

3. Pakistan’s economy is in a mess with inflation at its peak.

Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum was appointed as the new chief of Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI. In Pakistan, ISI, along with the army, takes most of the major decisions.

Imran Khan is reportedly not happy with the appointment of Nadeem Anjum who replaced former Lt Gen Faiz Hameed. Hameed is considered very close to Khan. He played a big role in helping Imran Khan's party win the election in 2018.

Next year, Pakistan's Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa is retiring and elections are going to be held in Pakistan in 2023. Imran Khan wanted Faiz Hameed to be the new army chief so he could help him win the election. But Pakistan's army was not ready for this, hence rendering Khan’s plan useless.

Meanwhile, the government of Pakistan also bowed down to the radical organization Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). This is the same organisation which a few months ago had organised a massive protest against France on the streets of Lahore over cartoon of Prophet Muhammad.

Instead of taking strict action against this radical organisation, the government bowed before it. More than two thousand of its supporters were released from jails and the ban on it was also lifted.

The third reason for possible fall of Pak government is the rising inflation in the country. The prices of sugar, petrol and electricity have skyrocketed. The inflation is expected to further increase for the next 6 months. It is believed that all these factors together can destabilize Imran Khan's government.

The history of Pakistan shows that whenever there is political instability, the army gets a chance to carry out a coup. For example, when there was a coup in Pakistan for the first time in the year 1958, the country's army encouraged protests against the then government and under the guise of this, the then army chief of Pakistan, General Ayub Khan became the new President of the country.

The same thing happened in 1977 when Pakistan's army chief General Zia-ul-Haq overthrew Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto amid ongoing protests against the government.

Similarly, in the year 1999, when Pakistan lost the Kargil war at the hands of India, then General Pervez Musharraf, the then army chief, overthrew Nawaz Sharif's government and became the new President.

It is possible that this time also the Pakistan army is considering doing something similar. The Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan, General Qamar Javed Bawaja would surely like to do so as his term is set to end next year after which he could remain in power only through a coup.