The “IK story” began in 2011 when Pakistan’s military establishment determined to secure a political alternative to the dynastic Bhutto-Sharif regimes that had alternated for over two decades. In 2014, the military prodded Imran to launch his narrative of “35 punctures”, a reference to the alleged “theft” of the 2013 elections that brought Nawaz Sharif to office. Winding its way through various long marches and dharnas to destabilise the Sharif regime, it roped in the Supreme Court under two Chief Justices of Pakistan, Saqib Nisar and Asif Khosa, to knock out Nawaz and culminated in the 2018 elections that were blatantly rigged to “select” Imran into office.

This book charts Imran’s rise and fall, starting from the “Same Page” narrative of a firm partnership between Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Army Chief, Qamar Javed Bajwa, that propped up his regime, to the time in 2021 when the same doctrine was abandoned after it became an acute embarrassment for the military and its chief.

Interwoven into the fabric of Imran’s demagogic politics was the ruthless ambition of two generals, one of whom sought an extension in tenure (COAS General Bajwa) and the other an elevation to the post of army chief (DG-ISI General Faiz Hameed). In the event, this unholy team couldn’t manipulate the system to achieve its ends.

This book charts the monthly miscalculations of Khan’s regime in the summer of 2021 after the transfer of General Faiz Hameed from the ISI to the Peshawar Corps, enabling the combined opposition to cobble the wherewithal of a successful No-Confidence Motion in April 2022 that finally felled Imran Khan.

This book is an indispensable read for students of political science and history who wish to understand how even the best laid institutional plans of powerful people fall by the wayside at that altar of personal ambition.