In an exclusive report Imran Khan spoke about how his relationship with the military was going 'swimmingly' well, till Aleem Khan's inclusion. This is when the two - General Bajwa and Prime Minister Imran Khan - began to show their differences and things began to fall apart. Here are key takeaways of What Happened:
- Upon rising to power, Imran Khan was viewed as THE man, especially by his supporters, who would deliver true democracy and wrest away power from the military. On the other hand, Khan hold firm faith in the military institution and believed in working with them but not necessarily for them.
- This is where it root cause for the split lies. Upon trying to fulfil his promise of bringing the elite to account for corruption, the main tool for it NAB as he discovered, was actually under control by the elite... institution. The military.
- Somewhere along the way Khan realised that the system wasn't quite how he thought it to be - NAB as he realised was a means to an end, not the solution. "It was to control politicians by having files about their corruption."
- The second devastating blow was the 'Other' man - Aleem Khan. Member of the PTI, Aleem Khan was surrounded by an aura of greyness. But why was he in a party against corruption? "We always thought they were allegations," said Imran Khan.
- This was where Imran Khan drew the line. Clearly, he could compromise on who wielded the tool that was NAB, but this other 'Khan' was the last straw. Upon coming across evidence of Aleem Khan's corruption, Imran Khan dug his heels in and refused to agree to General Bajwa's demand that Aleem be made CM Punjab.
- For all the talk about taking the 'chors' to the cleaners, Khan admitted that "The army was going after these people before I came to power... The Nawaz Sharif case, the Avenfield case... that was before me."
- Despite the good relationship, Imran Khan never really got to know Bajwa's friends. Claiming he never knew about the internal going-ons in the military, he "discovered there was a big issue going on about the army chief."
- Imran Khan only knew General Faiz Hamid and wanted him to stay till the transition of power in Afghanistan was completed. He was so concerned that he told General Bajwa to give recommendations because he "didn't know the other guys."
- Despite his attempt to set up a clean electoral system, post winning the election in 2018, Khan says he was met by resistance upon the part of the two main parties and the establishment. "Main parties because they have fake votes in most constituencies... resisted by the establishment, because then when it comes to manipulation, that's the time to do it."
- But Khan claims he won the 2018 election without any help. "The army did not back me in the 2018 election. I won fairly and freely."
- And he also believes there is no future without military input. "To think the army will be shunted out of politics is not possible. Using their constructive power can get this country out of institutional collapse."