November 16, 2014
By Saeed Qureshi
Imran Khan, the Chairman of PTI has vowed to remain in the fray (Dharna)
even if he is left alone. He disdainfully castigates the other political
leaders and accuses them of being enemies of the people and the whole lot being
corrupt thugs. Of late, he has lambasted one of the prominent jurists and human
rights activists Asma Jahangir ridiculing her and bracketing her with Maulana Fazalur-Rehman.
Lately an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Islamabad has issued
arrest warrants of Imran Khan, Tahirul Qadri the chief of the PAT, Shah Mahmood
Qureshi, Dr. Raeeq abbasi, Sheikh Rashid and many other leaders of both these
parties for raiding the Parliament House and building of the state-run
television channel besides manhandling the police personnel. Imran Khan has not
even spared the courts and mocked their orders.
Imran Khan has developed a habit of pouncing upon everyone who
offers him a piece of advice or challenges his outlandish outbursts in never
ending sit-inns staged by his beguiled followers. He has imbibed a propensity
of disparaging en-bloc his opponents and hurling bizarre and frivolous
accusations on them.
Like the Spanish ludicrous hero Don Quixote, tilts at the
windmills that come his way mistaking those as giants, Imran Khan too seems to
be turning paranoid by believing all political leaders were his enemies. Imran
Khan has proven himself to be an incorrigible hardliner who is averse or
unconcerned about others who may be even his well-wishers.
From the prime
minister to the superior courts’ judges he suspects everyone to be a barrier
and hurdle in his reckless and mindless style of politicking. Of late He is
left only in the company of street hooligans like sheikh Rashid and renegades
of other parties like Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
His mindless insistence on continuing with sit-inns is now turning
into a kind of theatrical shows losing their luster and charm for the common
people of Pakistan. If he is under the erroneous illusion that he can turn the
tide against the incumbent regime of PMLN then he should be squarely mistaken.
The worst of Tsunami’s lashing and destructive fury has passed away.
There is
no way that his political storm can shake the government from its foundations
or motivate the people coming out from their houses and stage a
countrywide upheaval forcing the
government to resign, the courts to close and all social and commercial life coming
to a naught.
There was a ripe time for him and his comrades to display a
semblance of diplomacy and extract as much mileage from the hard pressed and
rather a cornered government. Those were the days in the near past when the
roaring orator Tahirul Qadri was one with him and standing at the same stage
for a united voice to challenge the ruling cabal.
Imran hopped from one demand
to another hoping that the pressure so built up would bring the government
dashing to the ground. Had he accepted the government’s offer for a dialogue to
look into the re-elections on certain disputed seats that could have been the
first phenomenal step towards tabling further demands in a give and take manner?
To demand outright resignation of the prime minister and
dissolution of the assembly was too heavy, naive and unrealistic a demand
to be hurled in those tumultuous times. No government worth the name would
kneel down before the obduracy of a challenger who was simply bent upon
creating a law and order situation in the federal capital of Pakistan and
hampering the movement of the people and the traffic.
The attack and occupation
of the government buildings by the PTI activists was yet another daring yet foolish
adventure that has now come back to them in the summons of courts against the
arch leaders of the PTI and PTA.
The jargon and language of Imran and his coteries of foul mouthing
colleagues has been overly derogatory and at times amounts to character
assassination of his targets. It would be doubtful if Imran Khan can
reinvigorate and mobilize his supporters and fans once again with the same
force and tempo that was seen in them couple of months ago.
One of the pernicious fallout of the constant sit-ins was the
cancellation of the milestone Chinese’s premier’s visit to Pakistan for a
gigantic cooperation and an all embracing collaboration in many domains
particularly the economic mainly benefiting Pakistan. Those protocols were now
solemnized with the prime minister of Pakistan’s state visit to China.
With the
huge Chinese investment of 45 billion dollars in Pakistan, various watershed
projects like the generation of energy, a network of highways would be
completed in a given frame of time. Pakistan’s economy and social life can take
giant leaps towards betterment.
The writer is a senior journalist,
former editor of Diplomatic Times and a former diplomat.This and other articles by the writer can also be read at his blog www.uprightopinion.com
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