Washington, Apr 7 (PTI) Dubbing Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan’s claim that the US is looking to overturn his government as “concocted”, a former top Trump administration official said Wednesday that the country is entering a period of political uncertainty.
“I think that Imran Khan has concocted this idea that somehow the US is looking to overturn his government. He simply has concocted this story to try to shore up his own base and gain support for his position,” said Lisa Curtis, who was Trump Administration’s point person for India during his four years.
“He brought in the US as a means to try to hold on to his support base and get his support base riled up. He’s playing the US card,” Curtis told PTI in an interview.
Curtis, who is now a senior fellow and a director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Centre for a New American Security think tank, said the Pakistani military leadership has become disillusioned with him.
He’s been unable to take care of the economic problems facing the country, she said, adding the lack of his management skills to lead a country like Pakistan has contributed to the military disillusionment with his leadership.
Once the army signals that it is no longer supportive of the civilian leadership, the opposition smells blood in the water, and they’re taking advantage of that opportunity to try to overturn his government, she observed.
“I think that we are entering a period of political uncertainty (in Pakistan),” said Curtis, a long term close observer of Pakistan.
“We are going to see Pakistan more focused internally, as they try to work out this transition in leadership. But we’ve been here before. We have seen this kind of thing happen in Pakistan,” she said.
“In fact, I don’t think any government has completed a full term except for President (Asif Ali) Zardari, when he was in power from 2013 to 2018. That is the only administration in Pakistan that has actually lasted its full term. So this kind of political uncertainty that we’re seeing is not new in Pakistan. I don’t think there’s any reason for people to panic,” she said.
“But at the same time, we have to take it seriously. We have to monitor the situation because Pakistan is a nuclear-armed state. And it’s something that we don’t want to take for granted. But at the same time, I don’t see a reason to panic about it,” Curtis said. PTI LKJ RAX RAX
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Source: The Print
