The arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, a cricketer turned politician, has plunged Pakistan into uproar and uncertainty as the once-unthinkable scenario has become a possibility that seems all too real, leaving many scholars and critics around the world predicting a looming civil war in the country.

Pakistan Justice Movement (PTI) activists and supporters of Khan have clashed with police in several cities. It is shocking and worrying to see that violent mobs have attacked, destroying and damaging military elites’ houses, army martyrs’ monuments and memorials, and the military general headquarters in Rawalpindi, a seat of the country’s powerful institution that directly or indirectly rules Pakistan since its birth.

Additionally, from Times Square in New York to Pakistan’s Embassy in London, Pakistanis poured into the streets and protested Khan’s arrest.

Those young Pakistanis once singing patriotic songs, paying tribute to their martyrs with tearful eyes have now become violent. How did it all happen? Obviously, it is not an overnight outcome. Probably, Khan’s alleged anti-military speeches and campaigns have added salt to the wound, which is older than his coming into power.

The focus of attention is Khan’s arrest, not the reasons behind his detention on "corruption charges."

Since the start of the confrontation, I have watched dozens of short videos on TikTok, PTI activists storming military installations and even the general’s properties. Many of Khan’s supporters have raised Khan’s status above Muslim saints. Even so, Pakistanis abroad are also out protesting Khan’s arrest, which is long been precited, and scores of people gathered in front of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's house in London.

Since the inception of Pakistan, the army has directly or indirectly ruled the country. Plies of evidence show that the military dictators from Mohammad Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq to Pervez Musharraf have sometimes divided groups while on other occasions establishing, supporting and promoting in accord with political groups to sanction their military rule.

Pakistan’s mainstream political leaders, including Nawaz Sharif, and several politicians around Khan, including former Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, are products of the Pakistani army.

The powerful military owns a variety of institutions and businesses, from banks, fertilizers and real estate to cement plants, making it the most powerful institution in the country with trained manpower and a vast number of resources.

Pakistani commentator Ayesha Siddiqa’s in-depth analysis "Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy" (2016) and author Shuja Nawaz’s "Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within" (2018) best explain the power, role and influence of Pakistan’s army in politics to economy.

Globally, media pundits, critics and even members of the public know a well-established and undeniable fact: The army decides the "course of Pakistan politics" and Imran Khan was launched, promoted and brought into power by the army.

The same army, which is now under fire by his followers, seems they are not ready to spare people in military uniform. How have Pakistanis reached the boiling point?

The army’s long shadow

Even years later, Pakistan still seeks an identity beyond military rule today. Though millions of Pakistanis see Khan as their hero, millions of others evidently view him as a "hypocrite" and a "U-turn" leader who utterly failed to turn Pakistan into a just "Islamic state" as he proclaimed.

Pakistan’s political turmoil deepened after Khan’s arrest, which continues to pose a challenge to the state, but the point is for how long a handful of supporters of Khan can resist the government backed by the country’s powerful army, especially when the international powers, mainly the United States, are the silent observers.

The incontestable political history of Pakistan is evident: Whoever challenged "the men in boots" had to go. Popular leaders Fatima Jinnah to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the military’s own crafted product Nawaz Sharif to countless others, some now enjoy key positions within Khan’s PTI.

Despite her title as the "Maadar-e-Millat" (the mother of the nation), Jinnah, the sister of Pakistan's founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah, could not overcome Gen. Ayyub Khan's political discourses and campaigns, which branded her as a "traitor."

Decades on, the Ayub family continues to be benefited from power politics as they have served in every government. That’s the power of the establishment.

Now, as the ball rolls on, it seems that Khan will be no different from Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in their treatment by the establishment. If Khan believes otherwise, I'm afraid he is merely indulging in daydreams.

Let’s observe the emergence of new discourses aiming to erase Khan’s popularity in a systematic manner. It may take little time but eventually, the tried and tested "traitor" scheme may work. Although it’s the beginning, signs of establishment-backed new discourses and campaigns are emerging, for example, "Pakistan's army wants Imran Khan booked for treason for attacking military leadership."

All in all, only time will tell whether Khan will be part of history or remembered as a "political martyr." It is not surprising that many of Khan's close aides are ready to serve the "establishment" and eagerly await the opportunity to become party leader as soon as Khan is disqualified on corruption charges.