Bohot acha tabsara hai. But I think there is a flaw in this plan that Mr Khan stopped listening to Establishment a long time ago and Mr Zardari is an old hand who will be preparing as we speak to foil this effort.
Btw I would absolutely love if Mr Zardari writes a tell-all bio before he kicks the bucket. The guy has seen Pakistani politics inside out and over a very long period.
For months, a quiet theory floated around Pakistan’s political circles:
the Establishment might eventually free Imran Khan, not to restore democracy, but to use PTI as a counterweight to PPP in Sindh, especially Karachi.
It made sense.
PTI dominates Karachi’s urban vote. PPP controls rural Sindh. And the Establishment always prefers leverage over loyalty.
But politics in Pakistan rarely stays linear.
Just as the PTI‑vs‑PPP theory was gaining traction, the ground shifted under everyone’s feet.
The Supreme Court ruling in MQM’s favor didn’t just settle a legal matter, it re‑activated MQM as a political instrument.
A party that had been fading into irrelevance suddenly had institutional wind behind it again.
For the Establishment, this meant something simple:
PTI was no longer the only tool available in Sindh.
The public tug‑of‑war between Mustafa Kamal and Khalid Maqbool exposed MQM’s internal fractures.
But fractured parties aren’t a problem for the Establishment, they’re an opportunity.
A divided MQM gives the state:
• multiple factions to influence
• multiple loyalties to exploit
• multiple leaders competing for approval
And this isn’t new.
MQM was weakened long before Nine Zero was raided.
The creation of MQM‑Haqiqi didn’t happen by accident. It was part of a long, state-enabled fragmentation that plunged Karachi into years of turf wars. Thousands of people died in violence the state allowed to burn because it served a purpose:
break MQM from within before breaking it from above.
That history matters today.
Rumors of MQM‑London’s Return Thickened the Plot
As if the infighting wasn’t enough, whispers of a possible MQM‑Karachi + MQM‑London merger, even talk of Altaf Hussain returning, suddenly resurfaced.
These rumors don’t float on their own.
They float when someone benefits from the uncertainty.
A rumored MQM is often more useful than a stable MQM.
It keeps Karachi’s political market unsettled.
It keeps PPP nervous.
It keeps PTI guessing.
And it reminds everyone that MQM can be revived, reshaped, or re‑engineered at any moment.
This Complicates the “Imran Khan vs PPP in Sindh” Theory
My original analysis still holds:
Imran Khan could be used as a weapon against PPP in Sindh.
But the recent developments have layered the script:
• MQM is legally strengthened
• MQM is internally divided
• MQM‑London is back in the conversation
• Altaf’s shadow has re‑entered Karachi politics
• Karachi’s administrative future is being debated again
What once looked like a simple plan, PTI vs PPP in Sindh; has now evolved into a multi‑front engineering environment involving:
• MQM factions
• MQM‑London rumors
• Supreme Court intervention
• Karachi’s political vacuum
• PPP’s rural fortress
• PTI’s urban vote bank
• Imran Khan’s uncertain future
The plot didn’t collapse.
It just became more layered, more unpredictable, and far more interesting.
Sindh’s political chessboard is no longer a two‑player game.
It’s a crowded table and the Establishment is keeping all the pieces in motion.
This means the Establishment suddenly has multiple levers, not just PTI.
And when the state has multiple levers, it rarely relies on one.