Bloomberg.com
The Writing on the Wall
By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada
The result of the bye-elections held on October 16 — to fill 8 National Assembly seats and 3 Provincial Assembly of Punjab seats — couldn't be more categorical: millions of those who are followers of Imran Khan (IK) have given their democratic verdict in his favor. Their support for him remains unstinted, and the proof of it is their loud and unequivocal endorsement of him at the ballot box.
The writing on the wall, scripted by the people of Pakistan, is simple, lucid and clear. The people of Pakistan have spoken and sent a loud message to the ‘Establishment.’ It says, without any ifs or buts that they’re repudiating the political engineering—which had led to IK’s exit from power—and voting against it. They want their man, their leader, IK, back in the saddle to lead them to a ‘New Pakistan’ based on his vision.
In doing so, the people of Pakistan have loudly pronounced their rejection of the PDM cabal of thugs thrust on them. The people of Pakistan have stolen all the wind from the sails of the PDM mafia. Their message is also unequivocal: they’re fed up and done with the shenanigans of those who have arrogated to themselves the prerogative of being guardians of Pakistan. The bottom line of the people’s script is that they don’t take them as their guardians or the country’s ideologues.
What’s remarkable is that the people of Pakistan haven’t deviated, at all, from how they should be sending their message to the power-that-be. They have done it the democratic way, using the power of their vote — a sacred trust and a potent weapon in the hands of the people in any democratic polity — to tell all and sundry that they would like to remain committed to the basics of democracy to make their message heard.
If the people’s message registers in a positive light, we may hear an announcement about the date of general elections in the country.
In the wake of his thumping triumph in the bye-elections, the pressure on IK is increasing by the day, if not by the hour, to pull all the stop signs from the path of his putative and promised long march. No wonder that with a clear perception of the mayhem it might degenerate into—given the antics of a goon Interior Minister, Rana Sana, who has been sounding, day-in and day-out like a typical thug of a Punjabi movie — IK has, to date, held his hand from giving a clear signal for the march to his people. But he may not be able to delay it much longer.
IK has said, on the heels of his historic victory, that October is the month for him and his followers to cut the Gordian knot. It would be anybody’s game once IK is compelled to cast the die.
(The author is a former ambassador and career diplomat)
