Oh please, it´s more and more obvious that their “civilian government” is a sham. Osama was hiding out in the very heart of the supposedly anti-Islamist Pakistani military. The Pakistani “Deep State” is not on our side, and has never been. We have been scammed - hard.
Of course it is a sham. Anyone who has studied Pakistan knows that the government is run by the military, and the military is basically a fraternal organization.
But the “civilian” government has to put up some pretense to simply continue existing. They have to continue to spoof the outside world that they have a “civilian” government, because they’re now a nuclear power. They’re probably made more of a nuclear power by their association with the PRC, who is giving them all manner of technology, civilian and military. This is another reason why our “free trade” policy with China is stupid, but I won’t go off on that rant here. Suffice to say that the PRC and the Paks are joined at the hip.
The “civilian” government of Pakistan is necessary, because without it, they appear as a problem that the west has to deal with. And since they have at least a few nukes, dealing with them would require a very big hammer.
They’re violent, two-faced thugs. They’re not stupid, however.