Pakistan under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is sliding toward a civilian dictatorship, driven by an all-consuming fear of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, according to a report published by leading Bangladeshi daily Porthom Alo earlier this week. The analysis describes the Sharif administration as a 'captive government' — one paralysed by what it calls 'Imran Khan phobia' — unwilling to release the former premier or even comply with a Supreme Court order to transfer him to hospital.

The Supreme Court Order That Was Ignored

At the heart of the crisis lies a directive that was simply not followed. On 18 August, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered that Imran Khan, incarcerated at Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail for the past three years, be transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital in Islamabad within two days. Instead, according to the report, the Shehbaz Sharif government arranged a brief visit to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and returned Khan to Adiala Jail — effectively sidestepping the court's directive.

The report argued that had the court's order been implemented, both the subsequent imposition of Governor's Rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) long march would have been averted. Notably, this selective engagement with the Constitution — embracing it when convenient and bypassing it when inconvenient — draws a sharp parallel with Imran Khan's own conduct in office, the report observed.

Governor's Rule and the Long March

Sohail Afridi, Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a PTI leader, announced a long march toward Islamabad demanding Imran Khan's release. The federal government entered into negotiations with PTI, but those talks collapsed after Afridi insisted that only a direct instruction from Khan himself could halt the march — a condition Islamabad reportedly refused to accept.

Holding Afridi responsible for the breakdown, the federal government moved to impose Governor's Rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, suspending the PTI-led provincial government. While Pakistan has a precedent for such interventions, the report cautioned that the country appears to be 'repeating the same troubled past' — with consequences it described as historically painful.

Selective Constitutionalism: The Report's Core Charge

The Bangladeshi daily's most pointed criticism is directed at the government's relationship with the Constitution itself. 'The Shehbaz Sharif government's position is that whatever they are doing, they are doing within the Constitution. The Constitution also commands them to implement the Supreme Court's orders, but where the Constitution becomes an obstacle in their path, they ignore it. Where the Constitution serves the fulfillment of their political agenda, they become champions of the Constitution. Imran Khan used to do much the same,' the report noted.

This charge of selective constitutionalism, critics argue, is particularly damaging for a civilian government that has frequently positioned itself as a defender of democratic norms against Khan's populist politics.

What This Means for Pakistan's Political Stability

The developments underline a deepening governance crisis in Pakistan, where the political landscape continues to revolve around a single imprisoned figure. With PTI's organisational strength intact despite its leadership being behind bars, and with the judiciary's directives going unimplemented, the tension between executive authority and constitutional oversight appears set to intensify.

Whether the Sharif government can stabilise its position — or whether the Governor's Rule gambit and the suppression of the long march will further inflame PTI's base — remains the central question Pakistan's political observers are watching closely.