Imran’s miscalculated march

Unbelievable, unfortunate and ugly things have happened in Islamabad, the beautiful capital of our politically unstable country, these past two weeks. The constitution, the law of the land and the democratic institutions have been abused and challenged in full public view on Constitution Avenue. The use of force has been encouraged in ferocious speeches for short-term gains oblivious of the harm being done to Pakistan.

One wouldn’t like to make an issue of what the ambitious cleric-turned-politician Tahirul Qadri has been saying and doing because he has no stakes in the existing political and democratic system in Pakistan. It would serve his purpose if this system is wrapped up and replaced by his ‘revolution’ led and controlled by him through his so-called ‘revolutionary committees’. He and his Pakistan Awami Tehrik cannot come into power through any election as we found out in the polls held in the past and, therefore, the only way for him to take charge of Pakistan is to lead an ‘inquilab’ or ‘revolution’ with vague goals and not so hidden agenda.

Having pledged loyalty and allegiance to Canada and also Queen Elizabeth the Second, Qadri’s faithfulness to Pakistan has been debated at length. Under the law he cannot contest elections or hold public office in Pakistan, just like his sympathiser, British citizen Altaf Hussain of the MQM, and yet Qadri is adamant to play the role of a saviour in his original homeland. Both these gentlemen would do well to sacrifice their citizenship of an alien country to be able to play a more legitimate role in reforming and serving Pakistan. Unwilling to do so for the sake of the comfort and security that the citizenship of a western country has to offer, Qadri and others of his ilk come to a hard place like Pakistan for short-term assignments as if they are on an extended vacation.

It is difficult to be inspired by Qadri when he has no qualms in first celebrating and then lying to wriggle out of an unpleasant situation. There are many examples that could be quoted but the most recent one was when he denied that the stick-wielding, flag-bearing PAT workers who attacked and occupied the Islamabad centre of Pakistan Television and put its transmissions off air were his men. Rather, he claimed the angry ‘awaam’ did this and his followers forced them to vacate the building of the state-owned TV channel. The ‘eviction’ of the mob was done not by his men but by soldiers who needed a mic and a few sentences to peacefully secure the place and in the process even earn praise and ‘Long Live Pakistan Army’ slogans by the departing mobsters.

If Qadri is right, one could ask why the awaam didn’t storm PTV in the past. The only other people who have entered and occupied PTV Islamabad have been soldiers heralding a military coup, but even they didn’t damage the equipment, eat up the food stocked in the canteen or block the transmissions as was done by the mob wanting ‘inquilab’ or seeking ‘azadi’. All evidence, including TV footage, proved the presence of PAT activists and apparently also some PTI members inside PTV premises raising victory signs and chanting slogans for having conquered a state institution and making it clear that they could do more if and when instructed.

Qadri had a genuine complaint and a justified cause with regard to the non-registration of the first information report (FIR) by the police for the death of 14 PAT workers, including two women, at the hands of the police at Model Town on June 17. By delaying registration of the case and denying justice to the bereaved families, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and the ruling PML-N compounded their own problems and weakened their position. The same applies to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s delayed action in responding to the rigging allegations repeatedly made by the PTI Chairman Imran Khan.

In both cases, the Sharifs and the PML-N government could have managed things by giving away far less at the time than a lot more they are conceding and offering now. Embattled and weakened, the prime minister has now agreed to the registration of an FIR for the Model Town incident in which he and Shahbaz Sharif too have been named, in an unprecedented manner, as the accused along with 19 others on a number of charges, including terrorism.

A further sign of Nawaz Sharif’s weakening position is his government’s willingness to accept five out of the six demands made by the intransigent Imran Khan, who started believing the retreating prime minister was on the way out and could be brow-beaten into resigning from his office. That Nawaz Sharif has justifiably stood his ground is to a large extent due to the support given to him by almost all the political parties represented in parliament as well as by the other democratic forces.

With regard to Imran Khan’s foremost demand for the prime minister’s resignation even if it is for a month until the proposed Supreme Court commission completes its probe into the rigging allegations, it is obvious that the demand is unacceptable for the government as well as undemocratic and impractical. For the prime minister to step down would be to concede the unproven allegations that the polls were indeed rigged. He would have no other option but to quit once the allegations are proved.

Imran Khan should trust the Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, who was praised by him to no end, and his fellow judges to do justice without being influenced by the prime minister. Believing that Nawaz Sharif can buy the loyalty of anyone amounts to belittling and insulting the integrity of honourable persons. It also betrays a feeling of victimhood as if everyone is out to block Imran Khan’s march to victory and stop him from achieving his goal of becoming the prime minister.

It was a huge miscalculation on Imran Khan’s part to believe that a million protesters would be part of his ‘long march’ to Islamabad and that he and his strange bedfellow, Qadri, would be able to topple the Nawaz Sharif government through street power. When the promised crowds didn’t turn up, his frustration knew no bounds and that is when he and Qadri began using tough language and making unacceptable demands. One was disappointed to note that Qadri was now leading Imran Khan instead of the other way round even though the PTI chief had more support countrywide due to his star appeal and clean image compared to Qadri’s narrow sectarian agenda and dubious credentials. It wasn’t surprising that stalwarts in his own party began questioning his policies and his authoritarian decision-making style.

The PTI is now suffering strife in its ranks as some of the MNAs have refused to resign from their National Assembly seats and more could revolt against Imran Khan if and when any decision to resign from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly or its dissolution is taken. The electorate in the province had voted the PTI into power as it promised ‘change’ and it still has almost four years to accomplish the task. There is still time to make amends instead of throwing KP into chaos and handing it over to a burdensome coalition of several parties with conflicting agendas.

The way Imran Khan first summarily expelled the PTI President Javed Hashmi for showing dissent and later issued him a show-cause notice showed the arbitrary manner in which the party is being run. Hashmi was probably the lone PTI leader who could speak his mind and stand up to Imran Khan and his expulsion could mean further weakening of the voices of reason and courage in the party.

Hashmi’s subsequent allegations regarding Imran Khan’s links with unnamed people in the military establishment have harmed the PTI chairman’s position and damaged the party’s cause. True or not, this will now define Imran Khan’s politics and turn away many devoted followers from him. It is sad that a promising non-politician who had caught the imagination of so many Pakistanis since his October 30, 2011 public meeting at the Minar-e-Pakistan grounds in Lahore has fallen from grace and is now fast losing his appeal.

The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar.  Email: rahimyusufzai@yahoo.com