View from Pakistan: Imran Khan as a traitor'? A reminder of Zia days
Only last Monday, I was reminded of Gen. Zia-ul Haq with a somewhat strange reference to one of the top political leaders in this country of ours. Imran Khan was under attack by some of our friends on the “left.” So intense was the emotion directed at the PTI chief over his opposition to the lone Pakistan Super League game in Lahore that it brought back memories of the times when Gen. Zia used to be at the receiving end. The tone stirred up a train of thought that had been shrugged off many times before. This latest spell made it impossible. The question wouldn’t go away: have they finally found another Zia-ul Haq in Imran Khan to target to their hearts’ content? They had surely been missing that definite, incorrigible enemy to aim at all these years. Before you grade the idea as absurd, you would do well to take a look at some of the statements the PTI founder has been inspiring in the recent past. The statements, by people I would be ideologically placed with, would far surpass the combined impact of all the remarks and jokes and anecdotes someone like Asif Ali Zardari has generated. To my mind and in “my group” no one else can come closer to contesting the place except Mr Khan, after Mian Nawaz Sharif disqualified himself from the race due to, among other gestures and adjustments, his “positive” overtures towards the progressive camp since 2013.
And as was the case with Gen. Zia, this is ideological cannon fire that has been so generously piled upon Imran, layer upon layer of it from everyone who is close to the PML-N to whosoever could have been in proximity to the PPP, had it found a way of divorcing itself from one or two of Benazir Bhutto’s heirs. Back to the grand finale at the Gaddafi which, to our collective relief, we were able to stage without incident. Mr Khan is an Opposition leader and he came up with a view that was opposite to the one provided by the establishment. He said it was dangerous to have the match in Lahore, an opinion that could easily be backed by logic. There could always have been a better choice of words and tone. He could be let off with a stern “No sir we don’t agree with you” for making an honest evaluation of the situation — and may be noted for finally disagreeing with the powers who are credited with inventing him, the military brass. So much else could have been said in his defence till last Monday, which seems a long time ago. A few more lines have been spoken between then and now and some drastic changes in the draft have been made absolutely necessary. Not only does Mr Khan appear to relish his position as the recipient of the most intense anti and pro- feelings, he is without doubt doing all he can to help add more fuel to the chorus against him.
You might have a different perception but then you probably don’t hang around with the Imran-bashers this writer is surrounded by, which, give or take a few new names, is the same bunch which was once bound by a common hatred for the dictator in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. This was a self-explosion only God can save Mr Khan from. May be the gentleman was hurt that nobody was paying due attention to his protest and that’s why he took an even wilder swipe at it than his previous attempt —— the wildest and one impossible to defend by even those who shared his utter dislike for Najam Sethi and the PML-N leadership. The brilliant-thinking Mr Sethi and his backers could not have hoped for a more valuable bonus to accompany the successful and most welcome holding of the PSL final in Lahore. Imran Khan’s slip about “phateechar” and “railu kattas’ having marred the PSL match between Quetta and Peshawar by no means signifies a conclusive Sharif victory in the long-drawn battle between PML-N and PTI. The PTI chief has recovered from the self-inflicted injury to retain his appeal as the alternative to the Sharif rule. He might — he will — survive this huge embarrassment. Only for some of us looking for as definite a villain as we had the luxury of having in the Zia days, he will find it extremely tough to redeem himself.
By arrangement with Dawn
