Over the past few months, Pakistan has been placed under the microscope again. While the reasons are significantly more than past episodes, the standard mantra/doctrine continues its refrain – do more.
With this SITREP, we will be looking at the change in dynamics around Pakistan democratically, militarily and diplomatically. While many analysts will begin their summary from President Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweet of 4th January, we believe that the firecracker was triggered around the time of Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification as Prime Minister.
It is well-known that Nawaz Sharif was Saudi Arabia’s man in Pakistan, as Prince al-Waleed bin Talal admitted in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. There are also many unsubstantiated rumors that Nawaz Sharif is also close to the Indian government.
Understanding the complexity of Pakistan’s environment is very difficult for those who are not part and parcel of the nation. Many foreign-based analysts will attempt to describe the situation in Pakistan, but they have neither the context, nor the first-hand experience, to assimilate with what the average Pakistani deals with daily.
This is essentially why so many foreign analysts get Pakistan wrong. You cannot understand Pakistan without feeling what Pakistanis feel.
But this raises another issue – vested interests of individual Pakistanis that may be averse to the interests of the State of Pakistan.
There is a regularly circulated, not fully unsubstantiated rumor that circles in Washington, DC and Riyadh that Nawaz Sharif, unable to implement the agendas given by both capitals, made former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Raheel Sharif, the scapegoat and demanded assistance to remove him, and his influence from Pakistan.
