This was not the first occasion in November 2016 when Nawaz Sharif, as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, promoted Lieutenant General Bajwa to the position of General, entrusting him with the crucial role of heading the country’s army, particularly in a nation with significant nuclear capabilities like Pakistan. Prior to this, for a period of three years, Nawaz Sharif had worked with General Raheel Sharif as the Army Chief. However, similar to other Pakistani army chiefs, General Raheel Sharif proved to be a tough challenge for the civilian government, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
After the retirement of General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in November 2013, Nawaz Sharif promoted Lieutenant General Raheel Sharif to the position of Army Chief. A significant reason for this decision was General Raheel Sharif’s familial connections with the prestigious figures within the Pakistani army. Among them, General Raheel Sharif’s elder brother, Major Shabbir Sharif, was bestowed with the highest honor, Nishan-e-Haider, for his bravery during the 1971 war against India. Additionally, Raheel Sharif’s uncle, Major Aziz Bhatti, was similarly honored for his courage and bravery during the 1965 war against India.
However, during this decision-making process, Nawaz Sharif overlooked the fact that General Raheel Sharif’s elder brother, Major Shabbir Sharif, wasverya close friend of General Pervez Musharraf. This fact became evident later when Nawaz Sharif initiated a treason case against General Pervez Musharraf. At that time, General Raheel Sharif paved the way for him to leave the country under military protection, rendering Nawaz Sharif powerless to take any action.
When Nawaz Sharif, in the distant future, initiated the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project with an investment exceeding 40 billion dollars, there was considerable optimism about the improvement it could bring to Pakistan’s economy. However, General Raheel Sharif raised a demand that the headquarters of CPEC, established in Gwadar, should be overseen by a high-ranking officer in the military, possibly a Lieutenant General. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not agree to this demand.
Subsequently, General Raheel Sharif decided to create obstacles in the path of Nawaz Sharif’s government. Seeing the deteriorating situation, Nawaz Sharif allowed the GHQ to establish new units under the pretext of protecting CPEC. However, the matter did not end there. Under the military establishment’s signals, in the general elections of May 2013, allegations of rigging in four constituencies were used as a basis. Opposition parties, led by Imran Khan of PTI and religious leader Tahir ul-Qadri of PAT, staged a sit-in in Islamabad. The purpose of this 126-day protest was to exert pressure on Nawaz Sharif so that he would agree to the conditions set by the Army Chief. However, Nawaz Sharif refused to back down. During this 126-day protest, the country’s elite security agency, ISI, was providing all kinds of assistance to PTI.
At that time, Lieutenant General Zaheer-ul-Islam was the head of the ISI, and he was not willing to abandon or discontinue the “Project Imran” initiated by Lieutenant General Shuja Pasha, his predecessor, in any way. If on December 16, 2014, a large number of Pakistani children lost their lives in the terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, the very next day, on December 17, Imran Khan announced the end of the sit-in.
After General Raheel Sharif’s retirement, the decision to appoint General Qamar Javed Bajwa as the Army Chief was his most influential recommendation. Among his (Nawaz Sharif) close circle of personal friends, Major General (Retired) Ijaz Amjad was the most significant. He assured Nawaz Sharif that if he appointed General Bajwa to the position, they would work very obediently in their professional capacities. Unfortunately, it did not turn out that way. In 2012, ISI’s chief, General Shuja Pasha, had planted the seedling of “Project Imran,” which had now grown into a mature tree and could be utilized. Alongside this, the then DG ISI, Lieutenant General Faiz Hamid, proposed keeping General Bajwa in the position of Army Chief for six years and then having himself in that role for another six years, a plan that General Bajwa agreed to.
By using the pretext of Pakistan’s economic downturn, the military spokesperson directly criticised the Nawaz Sharif government several times and, based on the Panama scandal in 2017, declared Nawaz Sharif disqualified for politics and sentenced him to a long imprisonment.
In the controversial results of Pakistan’s general elections in 2018, General Bajwa and Lieutenant General Faiz Hamid smoothed the way for Imran Khan’s government.
Nawaz Sharif was serving his sentence in jail when, in 2019, he struck another deal through General Bajwa’s brother-in-law, obtaining permission to seek medical treatment abroad. Four years later, on October 21, he returned when the military-backed favorite, Imran Khan, is serving his sentence in jail.