OPINION: Keeping Tabs On Imran Khan, Too !

New Delhi may remain cautious of the Pakistan Supreme Court's possible verdict in favour of Imran Khan. Apparently, such a verdict would be good for the cause of democracy in the country. But Khan, too, hardly represents the genuine progressive , democratic forces that ought to prevail in Pakistan today.

In a significant development last week, chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan approached the country's Supreme Court against the alleged attempts of the current Shehbaz Sharif government in Islamabad to dismantle his party. Will the Court come to his rescue and order general elections in the country ?

Observers say the Court may be inclined to advance the cause of democracy in the country and rule in favour of Khan. It may take cognisance of the reports that the current Sharif government has, in coalescence with the top military leadership in the country , decided to try, in the military courts, the civilians, whom it suspects of being behind the May 9 incidents , including the fire at the Lahore Corps Commander House (also known as Jinnah House) and the vandalization of the Rawalpindi Army Headquarters .

The Court may also take into account the reports that the incumbent authorities have of late been pressurising the PTI members to isolate Khan within the party. The authorities have resorted also to other tricks to make the rank and file desert Khan . On May 26, Pakistan Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel shared a medical fitness certificate, prepared by the Pakistan Institute of Medical Science (PIMS). The report was designed to show that that Khan was "under stress with anxiety symptoms" and there was hence no point letting him lead the party.

However, the observers say, New Delhi may remain cautious of the Court's verdict in favour of Khan. Apparently, such a verdict would be good for the cause of democracy in the country. Khan is the most popular leader in Pakistan today. He must be given a chance to participate in Pakistan's politics . But the problem is : he, too, hardly represents the genuine progressive , democratic forces that ought to prevail in Pakistan today.

Once Khan happened to be very close to the military establishment, an anti-democracy element in the country . In the 2018 elections, Pakistan's military helped Khan win the general elections in order to reduce the dominance of the then two major political parties: former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).

During the first three years of his government , Khan was on very good terms with then Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. Khan even helped General Bajwa with a second three-year term as the army chief. Khan's tiff with the Army started only in October 2021 when he sought to prevent the appointment of a new chief for the I.S.I.

More importantly, New Delhi may bear in mind that Khan has been friendly to radical Islamist forces, such as the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan and the Tehrik-e-Pakistan / the Pakistani Taliban, which are hostile to India for ideological reasons . To please the TLP, Khan, when in power, developed a new curriculum with mandatory religion classes in the country's university education. It also established a body to monitor the social media against any content that might appear to be "blasphemous".

India must be vigilant about all radical Islamist forces in Pakistan. The conservative Deobandi brand of Islam has developed a considerable clout over the years in the country. In the late 1970s, over 70 per cent of mosques in Pakistan belonged to the relatively moderate Barelvi stream of Islam. Today over 55 per cent of them identify themselves as Deobandi.

The Pakistan Army, too, has over the years turned much closer to radical Islamists. In Pakistan in the late 1970s, over 90 per cent of the military mosques aligned themselves with the Barelvis. Today over 85 per cent of them adhere to Deobandism .

The observers suggest New Delhi must keep a close watch on the increasing influence of radical Islamists in Pakistan and take all appropriate measures to checkmate their historical designs against modern secular India . The Deobandi, like the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Salafism, has come out of Wahhabism.

Pertinently, Pakistan's Jamaat-i-Islami founder Maulana Sayyid Abdul Ala Maududi was greatly influenced by the doctrines of Shah Walilullah of the Mogul India and Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab of Ottoman Arabia, both born in 1703 . Maududi is long dead. But his followers continue to have their eyes on India.

In their dream to Islamize India, the radical Islamists might turn more adventurous in future. In this, an alliance between Wahabism and Khomeinism cannot be ruled out. It is well documented that Maududi had a close relationship with Khomeini since 1963 when they met during Haj. Founder of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Hassan al- Banna and Ayatollah Khomeini advocated an alliance between the two main branches of Islam.

(Jagdish N. Singh is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He is also Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, New York)

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