A significant rupture between the people of Pakistan and its powerful armed forces is now at hand in the violent aftermath of the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Khan’s rough arrest by the Punjab Rangers, rather than the Islamabad Police, from the premises of the High Court is being viewed as a payback for his relentless attacks against the military establishment. It is ironic because Khan, early on as prime minister, was viewed as the military’s "poster boy" and "protégé". His transformation into the army’s most acerbic bête noire is quite extraordinary.

As an institution with an untrammeled sway over life in Pakistan, the army has been delivered a chastening blow by the supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. Khan, of course, is now out on bail in all of the pending cases and charges. To understand the sordid goings-on in Pakistan in the midst of a ruinous economy and its currency rupee dropping to an astonishing 300 plus rupees against the US dollar, Mayank Chhaya Reports spoke to C. Uday Bhaskar, one of India’s most respected strategic and global security affairs analysts and a former naval commodore.

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