By Agha Iqrar Haroon
In the Mardan Pubic meeting, former Prime Minister Imran Khan directed his followers to reach Islamabad on his call after shunning fear of death. The message is loud and clear what he has in his mind.
He is preparing his followers for any bloodshed that can happen if they are stopped by the state moving towards Islamabad or Rawalpindi—the real target of Imran Khan I believe is Rawalpindi. I have my gut feeling without any credible information that Imran Khan can ask his followers anytime for encircling Rawalpindi while forgetting the losses his followers can face. Why not his loss, one can ask me? I believe he is a lucky man whose two sons are living in the House of Goldsmith in London and it is quite difficult for everybody in Pakistan to snub or arrest such a well-connected man who has a big fellowship of civil and military bureaucrats and their families. So only his followers would be losers if ever a physical head-on collision, which God forbids, takes place.
Before the fire-brand speech of Imran Khan, the Pakistan Army faced a heavy artillery attack from his former federal Minister Shireen Mazari over its barracks. And this attack was conducted just after some hours when Director General Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar requested politicians not to drag GHQ into politics. This attack was a categorical answer that PTI would not stop battering Pakistan Army. She had gone further and accused Army of harboring PTI members in a rest house manned by the Pakistan Army during the vote of no confidence against former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Is there anything left now? PTI knows government cannot take strict measures against his leadership and only his followers will face the wrath of the state. PTI circles believe that the government cannot neutralize Imran Khan within the shortest possible time because it took years to neutralize one man sitting in London.
One of my friends after listening press conference of Shireen Mazari commented that her allegations are a bundle of lies, unfounded and fabricated. I said then so what? In Pakistan, since 2011 it had become a new norm that PTI accused people without proof, and then victims were asked to justify they are innocent. The strategy of “you are guilty— now proof you are not” had been in use against politicians, particularly non-PTI politicians and impartial journalists since “Khan was in making” and now the Army is a victim of this well-learned, well taught, well-planned, and well-promoted strategy of PTI.
We should remember PTI was given a license for accusing anybody of anything including the judiciary, journalists, and politicians without providing any documentary proof and this license had no expiry date. Now it does not need its renewal for all times to come. When this license was granted, it was presumed (but not written) that PTI would not use this license for doctors, engineers, teachers, philosophers, academicians, scientists, civil and military bureaucrats, etc.
The speech of Imran Khan in Mardan is a threatening message to “sweep everyone away through a sea of people” if a date for fresh elections was not announced. Remember —-everyone— not the multiparty government.
Imran Khan said that an ocean of people coming to Islamabad would blow away everything and I fear anytime Imran Khan says that ocean of people would reach Rawalpindi. His speech had another message and this was for Pakistan Army that was “the more you say do not drag us in politics, the more I would drag you into politics”.
He said that he had warned the “neutrals” about the consequences of his ouster from power.
“I told them if this succeeds, the economy will go into a tailspin… I sent Shaukat to those who call themselves neutral but unfortunately, they did not stop it.”
One can only laugh at this statement that the economy had been ruined in the last 30 days while 42 months’ rules of Imran Khan were not disastrous economically. Can anybody tell Khan Sahib that dear you left after the total collapse of the economy, non-payments to energy producers, and the worst relationship with those who buy Pakistani products— the United States and European Union?
He claimed that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto had gone to Washington to sell Pakistan’s interest while his former foreign minister and he himself visited Washington for “successful attempts to develop excellent Pak-US bilateral relationship”.
I sometimes appreciate strong traits of his personality that are his skills for compelling others. He said to Bilawal that he (Bilawal) should remember that America had tapped his phone calls with his late mother former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Having a relationship with Washington for Bilawal is a sin but seeking a telephone call from President Biden and using all diplomatic channels to listen to Biden’s voice over the telephone was a legitimate desire of Imran Khan. America is an enemy when it gets relations with Bilawal but America was an important friend when former NSA Mooed Yousaf had been asked to keep trying for a phone call from President Biden.
In Mardan public meeting, Imran Khan had again demanded Chief Justice of the Supreme Court form a commission and ask them to find out about the traitors who executed a conspiracy against him. Does Khan sahib remember he has several times criticized the same Chief Justice for holding court at midnight to tackle constitutional abrogation his former deputy Speaker did? How would you accept the finding of such a commission because you (Imran Khan) do not trust the same court?
Imran Khan is demanding fresh elections before August 2022 but he does not trust the current Chief Election Commissioner although he was appointed by Imran Khan. Is there anybody available in Pakistan except Imran Khan, who according to Imran Khan is honest, clean, trustworthy, patriotic, and reliable? Trust me, Imran Khan actually wants to first destroy all state institutions and then reconstruct them according to his wishes. He wants to clone many Imran Khans and every Imran Khan would head every important state institution like the Supreme Court, National Accountability Bureau, Election Commission of Pakistan, General Headquarters of Pakistan Army, and then Imran Khan will hold fresh elections. This is the only solution for the anarchy he has brought into the system.
Moreover, we all now understand that Imran Khan shall never accept elections results if they go against him unless cloned Imran Khans are not installed at the Supreme Court, National Accountability Bureau, Election Commission of Pakistan and General Headquarters of Pakistan Army, and then the country would ahead for further anarchy. If you hold early elections or you do not hold early elections, anarchy is inevitable unless anarchists are not controlled.
Please do not call my idea hilarious, stupid or unnatural. This is a practical idea, at least for those who follow Khan Sahib because cult followers do not live in the real world and they have a world of their own— a world in which their leader can perform anything— even can produce humans.
I know that angered and disappointed with the slow pace of social change in modern societies, idealists can turn to cults, with their promise of immediate, direct action. We have seen several cults of this kind in the 60s, 70s, and even in the 80s in Europe and United States. Now, this is our turn since 2010.
It is a truism that a cult tries to legislate its creeds into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.
The less reasonable a cult is, the more men seek to establish it by force.
Jean-Baptiste Rousseau
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this article/Opinion/Comment are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the DND Thought Center and Dispatch News Desk (DND). Assumptions made within the analysis are not reflective of the position of the DND Thought Center and Dispatch News Desk News Agency.
