How will the Generals save themselves?

World is watching with close attention on how the Pakistan Army would extricate itself from the political mess it has created.

Apart from the coup, there is little that the Generals could do to retain their power over the land. The army leadership is sharply divided for a coup to take place and General Javed Bajwa is not General Musharraf.

One thing, however, is sure–the army will not let its supremacy slip away at any cost. It will, have no doubt about, play a key role in how the political game plan is unravelled in the next six months.

Right now, two possibilities present themselves to the Generals–an early election and a tie-up with the judiciary.

An early election would mean less mudslinging and a better leverage over politics. Rarely has such a vituperative campaign been launched against the army and the Generals. Insinuating and personal attacks against Generals have become common. A few weeks back, any insult or seeming humiliation against the army resulted in prison or assault from anonymous goons. Now, almost everyone with a smartphone is happy laughing at the Generals, leaving them aghast and, most unlikeliest of situations, helpless.

An early date of election would break the unity among the political parties. Including PTI, all political parties are happy to take on the Generals. It reduces its own culpability in bringing Pakistan to the edge of multiple disasters. This unity of convenience is a new threat to the Generals. This can be broken once the elections are announced–the parties will then go at each other, rather than the army.

The army’s only way of making this happen is to keep the judiciary on its side. The judiciary, barring few exceptions, have often worked as the B Team of the Generals. The judges have been too eager to justify coups and various other licentious behaviour of the Generals. For instance, the humiliation and hounding of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The judges and Generals joined hands to ensure that Sharif is hounded out of Pakistan and his name besmirched. The same judges forgot to look at senior Generals found guilty of amassing wealth beyond even their special means. Well-known English daily, Dawn, once wrote in its editorial that “ There has been for too long a steady drip-drip of corrosive stories — some reported, others whispered behind closed doors — about outside influence in the halls of justice.”

This time around too, questions swirl around the judiciary’s role in the political drama. At least that is what the deposed Prime Minister Imran Khan and his party workers think and project. The judges have not been free of being maligned on social media and otherwise. The army could find them amenable to an early election.

The judges offer the Generals effective instruments of coercion. The current Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, and his son, Hamza Shehbaz, incumbent Chief Minister of Punjab, are awaiting indictment in a 16 billion rupee fraud case and several other cases. Other Sharifs are also in dock over cases, false or otherwise. In any case, judges have a role in changing the scene if need be. The judges have done the bidding of the army in the past and can be relied upon to save the Generals this time around.