A Myth or Reality?
By Misbah U. Azam, PhD
Fremont, CA
On October 30, Imran Khan gathered thousands of supporters at the Minar-i-Pakistan ground and proved – in some analysts’ opinion — himself a viable force on Pakistan’s political horizon, a force that could challenge the “powerful” PPP and PML(N).
The public’s response to Imran’s call was very spirited and demonstrated that people of Pakistan still believe in democracy no matter how much they are disappointed with their elected leaders whom they had sent to the parliament with the hope that they would work hard to solve their problems but who instead began to fill their bank accounts by plundering the national exchequer.
However, if one takes an honest look at Imran he appears no different from the other politicians. Here are some observations:
1) So far, Imran’s politics is based on rhetoric and he tries to say only what people would like to hear. His speeches are – for most part -- full of bad-mouthing every politician and their parties but so far he has not presented any viable or practical solution to the problems plaguing the country.
2) For some time he has been a darling of the media and was seen seated alone with TV anchors and making allegations against other political leaders without any proof. Unfortunately, on most such occasions he went unchallenged. Some of his allegations were later proven incorrect but he and his spokespersons never conceded that.
3) He claims that he is the only one who is a patriot and this is the reason why the Taliban are not against him. He has claimed that the thousands killed in suicide bombings make up “collateral damage” and justified indirectly because, according to him, Taliban are also killed because of military operations. He always insists – but is unfortunately never challenged – that before the military operations, there were no suicide bombings. He forgets the fact that initially there were little or no suicide bombings but that situation persisted because at that time Pakistan’s security agencies were protecting them, funding them and allowing them to operate wherever they liked, even as far as Arakan. Once these groups lost the support of the Pakistan Army they went under the Al-Qaida umbrella and became the enemies of Pakistan. Salim Shahzad (S) had covered this issue in detail in his book.
4) He has become a hope for the Pakistan establishment which is not ready to accept the PML(N) and does not trust the PPP. There are media reports that the establishment was
taking great interest in Imran’s public meeting and they were found measuring the area of Minar-i-Pakistan to estimate the number of people present at Imran’s meeting.
If Imran is really honest and is likely to bring a change he should stay away from all those who have been chumming around different political parties and the Generals. Imran must realize that he is under close public and media scrutiny. He and his party must stop making unauthenticated allegations and insisting that people must accept whatever they say. Soon he will be exposed and people will lose faith in democracy.
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