Islamabad, Pakistan: The founding chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan has tendered a conditional apology for the vandalism and violence his party followers showed on May 9, 2023, on his instruction. The condition he sat for his apology is the release of CCTV footage to verify the involvement of PTI members in the incidents. However, thousands of clips of attacks on martyr’s monuments, Jinnah House Lahore, and Mianwali Airbase were posted by his followers on social media on the same day they attacked military installations.
The question arises how could his apology be considered ‘conditional’ when his demand for the release of CCTV footage is already available? Here is a catch— Political observers believe Imran Khan wanted to send a message based on lies that behind the door rapprochement with the military leadership is taking place and soon he would be pardoned and would be back in the political scene. His ball is now carried by various analysts who have started to raise the question that if Imran Khan sincerely apologizes to the nation, then what can happen after that, will he be pardoned, will cases against his followers be withdrawn, and will PTI would get a new political life? Some of the paratrooper anchors who were launched during Project Imran are sending ‘good news’ to PTI followers that everything would be normal soon for PTI’s leadership. However, things are otherwise in reality and the military looks categorical in its stated position that no mercy or pardon for those who made a mockery of martyrs by attacking their monuments.
An impartial analysis of the event with a historical perspective indicates that there would be no pardon for their actions of burning the statues and memorials of martyrs and desecrating them, and burning state properties like the Radio Pakistan Peshawar building and Jinnah House Lahore. After apologizing, if Khan has the illusion that all the sins he has committed against the state of Pakistan will be forgiven, then it is equivalent to living in a fool’s paradise because there is no forgiveness for the sins he had committed despite extraordinary judicial reliefs he is getting from higher judiciary.
People who are gloating over this conditional amnesty narrative and thinking that it will absolve the founding chairman of his sins and open up his ways with the establishment are mistaken.
Pakistan Army can never ignore a person or a party that has attacked the Pakistan Army, desecrated its martyrs, and spread dirty and false propaganda against Pakistan. This is a reality that there is no forgiveness in any system for rioting and damaging state property, be it the attack on Capitol Hill or the raging racist riots in London.
