Posters urging Pakistani Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif to take over the country in a military coup have suddenly sprouted across Pakistan this week, with a photograph of Sharif, a burly man with a thick mustache, and an emphatic, pleading request: “For God’s sake, take over.”
They had been posted on the main thoroughfares of major cities by an obscure political party called Move On Pakistan, which believes that civilian leaders cannot be trusted.
“There’s no direct evidence of the involvement of the army and its intelligence agencies in the posters,” Ejaz Haider, a prominent political analyst and talk show host, said in an interview. “That said, past experience tells us that one or the other intelligence agency can quietly push certain disgruntled elements to start such campaigns in the physical and virtual worlds.”
Rumors about an impending coup are nothing new in Pakistan, which has had four periods of military rule, direct or indirect, since its founding in 1947. Public patience with civilian rulers, who are seen as corrupt and inefficient, wears out quickly. The military, which controls the levers of power, sees itself as the savior.
In recent months, the popularity of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has dipped considerably because of corruption allegations that have swirled around his family.
It is not surprising that Pakistanis are seeking a deeper motive behind the mysterious and organized campaign. At the very least, the timing of the posters, which went up on Monday across at least a dozen cities, is peculiar.
Just days earlier, Nawaz Sharif returned to the country after an absence of several weeks to have a heart operation in London on May 31.
At the same time, a whisper campaign has been urging the army chief to reconsider his decision not to seek an extension of his three-year term when it expires in November.
Raheel Sharif, who is not related to the prime minister, remains hugely popular in the country for his successes on the battlefield against Taliban militants. He is seen as a man who gets things done, and many Pakistanis believe that he can bring lasting peace and much-needed economic stability.
Move On Pakistan denies that it is backed by the military, but acknowledges that it does not want Raheel Sharif to retire.
On Thursday, the civilian government registered a case of criminal conspiracy against the leaders of Move On Pakistan.
Retired generals and some politicians have joined the bandwagon, exhorting the general to extend his military service.
“In the current circumstances, Raheel Sharif cannot go and should not go,” said a retired head of Pakistan’s premier intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “You cannot hand over the country, which is facing a number of crises, to an ailing prime minister.”
The public has grown impatient with Nawaz Sharif. Largely viewed as an indifferent ruler, preoccupied with opulence and luxury, he spent much of 2014 fending off questions of legitimacy by his political nemesis, Pakistani lawmaker Imran Khan.
And this year, allegations that Nawaz Sharif’s family has hidden massive wealth overseas have emerged from the so-called Panama Papers document leak.
Apart from political troubles, Nawaz Sharif continues to have a tense relation with the military. His last government was toppled in a bloodless coup in 1999. And this time, too, Nawaz Sharif and the military establishment differ over broad policy matters.
Nawaz Sharif is a champion of normalizing relations with India and other neighbors, while the military wants to hold off. His government charged former Pakistania president Pervez Musharraf, also a former army chief, with treason, but let him leave the country for medical treatment under pressure from the military.
On Tuesday, a military spokesman publicly distanced the army from the poster campaign, but also showed no interest in taking action against those behind it.
Under the Pakistani constitution, inciting the military to take over can lead to treason charges.
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