"Imran Khan floundered": Former Diplomats book sheds light on events leading to ouster of Khan from power post-abrogation of article 370

New Delhi: Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan was calling India's PM a "fascist" and deploying all social media assets for a new war against "Hindutva", according to a new book by Ajay Bisaria, the former High Commissioner to Pakistan, detailing the desperate all-out diplomatic campaign launched by Pakistan following the abrogation of Article 370.
In his latest book, 'Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship between India and Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria former India High Commissioner in Pakistan, claims that opposition was breathing down the neck of Khan, reminding him of his promises to resolve the Kashmir issue.
"PM Imran Khan was calling India's PM a 'fascist ' and deploying all social media assets for a new war against 'Hindutva'," as per the book.
Describing the events that precipitated the fall of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his ouster from power nearly three years after the abrogation of Article 370, the former diplomat writes, "As the Pakistani army turned 'neutral', Khan floundered. His government fell in a parliamentary no-confidence vote, held past midnight on 10 April 2022. A new coalition regime of the Sharifs and Bhuttos emerged from the political debris, again enabled by the army, with Shehbaz Sharif as prime minister and Bilawal Bhutto as finance minister. Pakistan's shaky new coalition did not seem to have the power to make any major departure in the India policy, with Imran Khan snapping at their heels".
"On August 5, India's parliament revoked Article 370. Jammu and Kashmir's special status was now extinguished and it became a union territory, at a par with others in the Indian union. Home Minister Amit Shah said in parliament that the revocation of Article 370 was meant to bring an end to the bloodshed and violence in Kashmir. With 41,000 lives lost in Kashmir, he asked, should we wait to lose 10,000 more before we changed the status quo?", says the book.
Bilateral relations nosedived between India and Pakistan following the Centre's decision to abrogate the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and split the region into two union territories.
"The opposition was already critical of Khan, reminding him that he had said that Modi would be good for resolving the Kashmir issue if he was re-elected, the former diplomat wrote in his book.
To mobilise international opinion against the Kashmir cause, the book went on to say that Pakistan started to raise the issue at international forums. "Pakistan's best hope was that there would be a violent pushback on the Article 370 move within Kashmir. Any bloodshed there would give Pakistan the basis to raise the issue in international fora from a 'peace and security' and also a 'human rights' perspective."
At the Organisation of Islamic Countries, a group of 57 states that represent the Muslim world, Pakistan was trying to make the latest Kashmir issue a common cause for the Muslim ummah, as per the book.
"Bilateral relations had dipped and Pakistan's best hope was that the Article 370 move would be deeply unpopular in Kashmir, even if it could not engineer violence by Kashmir-focused militants. One more promising venue was presenting itself to Pakistan to try to internationalize the issue-- at the Human Rights Council in Geneva," as per the book.
As per the book, over 40,000 lives had been lost in Kashmir and USD 40 billion had been spent on Kashmir, ten times more per capita than the national average. Business as usual was no longer tenable. "The Article 370 move aimed to correct a historical wrong that had been allowed to persist for too long," claims the book.