MUNIR COULD ATTEMPT A COUP, OR BRING ISLAMIST PARTIES TO POWER

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's message that the only matter pending between India and Pakistan is the return of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir signals the end of the traditional diplomatic framework in New Delhi's engagement with Islamabad.

- NAMRATA BIJI AHUJA

In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK, former Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar says Pakistan has consistently made the error of underestimating the Indian response in all the wars it started. He says General Asim Munir, the Pakistan army chief, has been trying for a power grab by creating turbulence in India. Edited excerpts:

Q/ After Prime Minister Modi’s assertion that Operation Sindoor has added a new dimension to Pakistan’s battlefield defeats, what could be Asim Munir’s next step?

A/ To understand Munir's next step, we need to take a close look at his first step. When you hear an ideological speech by a Pakistan army chief, in which the defunct but toxic two-nation theory has the primacy of place, perhaps the place to begin is the unique share of power that the army commands in Pakistan’s ruling structure. An army chief does not make political speeches in a democracy. Pakistan is not a functioning democracy; it is a stuttering oligarchy in which power is shared between a civilian political party and the permanent party in power, which is the armed forces.