Islamabad: The hybrid model that has been desired for a long time is now fully ready, not only openly endorsed, but also celebrated.
The military chief’s global meetings, which are reserved for elected leaders, make it clear that the power houses are no longer behind the scenes but are on the center stage.
Defense Minister Khawaja Asif wrote in his tweet a few days ago that all the revolutionary changes, including the revival of the economy, the defeat of the Indian military, and the improvement in relations with the United States, were possible due to the cooperation between Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, and the excellent relations between Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Some quarters may have speculated on Khawaja Asif’s remarks, however, according to some political observers, it confirms a long-standing fact; hybrid government is not just a reality, but is flourishing.
According to observers, the term hybrid system, which was used in cautious terms, is now being presented as a political solution to Pakistan’s political and economic instability.
Despite the increasingly blurred civil and military roles, the hybrid model seems to have taken a formal and acceptable form, with political legitimacy derived partly from the ballot box and mostly from proximity to Rawalpindi.
Once the PTI used to champion it, today the PML-N and the PPP are convinced that their political survival lies not in opposing the new system but in becoming part of it. This has apparently negated decades of confrontation, incompetence, jail stints, exile and political engineering.
Whether this change is permanent or not, political analyst Raza Rumi said that permanence is a delicate word in Pakistan, however, what is currently being seen in Pakistan is an effort to gradually strengthen the hybrid structure of power.
