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Imran Khan’s Resurrection
Pervez Hoodbhoy Published March 2, 2024
LIBERAL commentators, once maligned by
Imran Khan as “liberal scum” and “bloody liberals”, have nevertheless been fair-minded and have rightly criticised the Feb 8 elections as heavily managed.
They are part of a growing chorus alleging unfair exclusion of Khan and his PTI. True enough, but so what? Wasn’t that heavy management equally evident in the 2018 elections when Khan rode to power on the coattails of those who later dumped him?
Of course, two wrongs cannot make a right. However, thoughtful people should be troubled by much else, not just the travails of some politician or his party. Most particularly, they should be appalled that, instead of strengthening democracy, Feb 8 was simply a power grab and a horse race followed by horse trade.
When candidates appeared on TV their language was crude, aggressive, and ad hominem. None spoke of plans for improving their community or country — and means of implementation. Past experience shows that many who become parliamentarians seek only to exponentially increase their wealth and power.
In the election run-up, the PML-N, PTI, PPP and other rivals behaved as wolf packs, not political parties. Lacking defined agendas, they reluctantly trotted out half-baked election manifestoshurriedly slapped together just days earlier. Without details or implementation schemes, these manifestos are worthless.
Personality contests, sectarian and tribal affiliations, and bribes were all that mattered. No party offered insight into preventing the impending apocalypse of an imploding economy, exploding population, and resentments in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. How is one to deal with desperate youth with university degrees but no skills? Seething religious fanaticism intertwined with misogyny? Disappearing trust in key institutions including the judiciary,
bureaucracy, police and army?
The future: we have recently seen convicted felons and politicians whitewashed and cleared. Given this precedent one knows Khan’s release will come within months or years. He will be declared innocent of crimes that he did not commit but also of those that he did. When he claws his way back to the top, a dark age will descend on Pakistan. Several signs point to this dismal outcome.
Pervez Hoodbhoy Published March 2, 2024
LIBERAL commentators, once maligned by
Imran Khan as “liberal scum” and “bloody liberals”, have nevertheless been fair-minded and have rightly criticised the Feb 8 elections as heavily managed.
They are part of a growing chorus alleging unfair exclusion of Khan and his PTI. True enough, but so what? Wasn’t that heavy management equally evident in the 2018 elections when Khan rode to power on the coattails of those who later dumped him?
Of course, two wrongs cannot make a right. However, thoughtful people should be troubled by much else, not just the travails of some politician or his party. Most particularly, they should be appalled that, instead of strengthening democracy, Feb 8 was simply a power grab and a horse race followed by horse trade.
When candidates appeared on TV their language was crude, aggressive, and ad hominem. None spoke of plans for improving their community or country — and means of implementation. Past experience shows that many who become parliamentarians seek only to exponentially increase their wealth and power.
In the election run-up, the PML-N, PTI, PPP and other rivals behaved as wolf packs, not political parties. Lacking defined agendas, they reluctantly trotted out half-baked election manifestoshurriedly slapped together just days earlier. Without details or implementation schemes, these manifestos are worthless.
Personality contests, sectarian and tribal affiliations, and bribes were all that mattered. No party offered insight into preventing the impending apocalypse of an imploding economy, exploding population, and resentments in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. How is one to deal with desperate youth with university degrees but no skills? Seething religious fanaticism intertwined with misogyny? Disappearing trust in key institutions including the judiciary,
bureaucracy, police and army?
Inadvertently Feb 8 transformed PTI’s jailed leader into Pakistan’s most popular politician. The iddat case: what a joke! Such clumsy persecution tactics earned Khan widespread sympathy. In 2018, the establishment worked hard to make him a hero; this time it did that by vilifying him.
The future: we have recently seen convicted felons and politicians whitewashed and cleared. Given this precedent one knows Khan’s release will come within months or years. He will be declared innocent of crimes that he did not commit but also of those that he did. When he claws his way back to the top, a dark age will descend on Pakistan. Several signs point to this dismal outcome.
Imran Khan’s resurrection
Old faces in the new government are bad enough but Khan’s presence would have been worse.
www.dawn.com
