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Any bets if we’ll finally be ‘azad’ when we wake up on Aug 15, under the diktats of the commissars of the Qadri revolution or facing the ultimate ignominy of more of the same — the Sharifs?
Don’t know why but each serious vision of azadi under Imran Khan’s stewardship, has brought to mind an image of Khan, at his fastest, his very best, bowling one very, very short and wide which wicketkeeper Waseem Bari misses despite his best leaping-diving effort.
As the ball races to the boundary for four byes, the camera zooms in on the bowler’s scowl and then (one didn’t need to be a certified lip reader to understand) the two words Imran Khan hurls at Bari from halfway down the pitch before angrily turning and beginning his long walk back to the top of his run-up.
Imran was and is a fighter to the core. But he’s not one to admit he could also be wrong.
Imran was and is a fighter to the core. There is no doubt about it. But, as the Bari bye demonstrated, he’s not one to admit he could also ever be wrong. Where the proof is incontrovertible he doesn’t ponder long, is often dismissive even when confronted with it.
The problem with instinctive fighters is that they are masters at improvisation and don’t necessarily factor in all possible scenarios. So, unless he knows, or has been assured, of the cause and effect of his Aug 14 plans he could end up legs astride, hands on hips scanning the horizon for who to blame. He can be sure a Bari won’t be around.
Anyone who disputes the need for electoral reform in the country should be suspended from taking part in electoral politics. Really. But to suggest there is a need to throw out the baby with the bathwater seems too extreme, even dangerously irresponsible.
This is where the phenomenal cricketer-politician seems to be heading unless he changes direction radically in the coming week. Some of his key lieutenants such as Asad Umar and Dr Arif Alvi keep insisting that their party is committed to seeking reforms, not dismantling the system.
However, their leader’s avowed goal of seeking a fresh election of the national and provincial assemblies obviously under a ‘reformed’ Election Commission hints at the dismantling of the system as even the PTI leader is unable to explain how he’ll achieve it under the present constitutional provisions.
So, if his million-man (and woman) march captures the capital and continues to besiege it for days or weeks on end, the resultant paralysis and possible anarchy would set alarm bells ringing about its effect on the economy and stability. The fear of the inevitable may well be realised.
The government must go. And if the army took over for a few years it won’t be a bad thing, said one of PTI’s known public faces Abrarul Haq in an off-the-cuff remark to a TV presenter in Islamabad. It was reported on Twitter. Was it his lack of political maturity or did it reflect deeper party thinking?
Who knows who’ll be the captain in such a scenario? Imran Khan’s bitterness at the current dispensation is deep-seated as he is convinced the last election was stolen from him. But is his giant-sized ego now so badly bruised that he’s playing for broke? Common sense would say that’s not the case.
But what’s common sense got to do with Pakistani politics?
The Sharifs’ disastrous dip in opinion polls is directly proportionate to the number of hours the people are going without electricity. They made tall promises they couldn’t or cannot keep and must face the backlash.
Now one has heard Imran Khan mobilising supporters with a pledged quick end to power cuts and the price of electricity at two rupees a unit. Two rupees a unit? Yes, incredible as it sounds, these were his exact words. If this was ludicrous let’s look at what passed for sublime on the same day.
The leader of the revolution, which might pre-empt the Aug 14 freedom (azadi), Dr Tahirul Qadri, announced at a news conference that the Sharifs were planning to flee the country. Evidence: Hamza Shahbaz’s letter to the US embassy to support the visit visa applications of a few of his domestic staff.
Now if Dr Qadri had researched he would have known how royalty travel: always with a retinue. In fact, when the Sharif boys first came to London to ostensibly read at university in the previous tenure of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the 1990s, a slaughtered goat, the choicest cuts of meat from their favourite Lahore butcher, was flown in each week by PIA.
Food is a weakness with them. So travel they can’t without making sure all the paraphernalia for the gourmet travels with them. In fact, one can be sure, the revolutionary cleric himself has benefited from such attention, if his rather well-appointed, climate-controlled, armour-plated protest ‘container’ is anything to go by.
The current crisis, however, has forced the Sharifs to eat humble pie and shower attention they reportedly reserve for nihari and paaye on all manner of politicians. They are trying to pamper and retain allies to create support that’s broad-based enough to ward off what they see as an existential threat.
The one lesson inherent in all this appears lost even now on most of the players in the fray. Delivery. A lot of what the incumbents face today is because of the unreal promises they made during the election campaign. And the electorate is justifiably unforgiving of those who don’t deliver.
Not being a soothsayer, it would be difficult for me to predict where we’ll be on Aug 15. What can be said for sure is that the patience of the people and more ominously of the men in khaki may not be infinite. It is up to the politicians to rise to the occasion.
The writer is a former editor of Dawn.
Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2014
