Imran Khan – A demagogue!

Pakistan is not only an over populated but also an over politicized country, where as many as 236 political parties are registered. But except some notables ones most of these political parties are unknown to be the public, same was the case with PTI, which was created good 15 years ago.

In his early days of politics Imran Khan tried his heart out to cash his Cricket successes in the political arena but failed miserably, in his desperation for power he also supported Musharraf’s referendum, but when Musharraf overturned Imran’s wish to become Prime Minister of Pakistan, disheartened Imran left to live with his in-laws in London. Only to come back with a new agenda of reviving the politically dead PTI and out of the blue the PTI started to stage massive public gatherings and spent about Rs645 million on advertising and marketing to get on the chart of ‘TOP POLITICAL PARTIES OF PAKISTAN.’

If I say that whatever mandate PTI got in the general elections last year was solely because of Imran Khan’s firm and clear stand against the corruption, it wouldn’t be wrong. The educated and privileged youth of the country went to support Imran only because of the promises he made, during his election campaign. The words he used to attract the youth of Pakistan were ‘Tsunami’ and ‘Naya Pakistan’.

Referring to my old blog (Self Destructive Tsunami), which I had written just after a week of general elections 2013. Attitude and the behavior of PTI workers after their worst defeat in GE13 were unbelievable, they were bashing, abusing, blaming and implicate the opponents for rigging. PTI seemed to be competing with itself for setting new lows of indecency and immorality in politics.

PTI, allies formed their government in KPK with the promises of Khan to end corruption in 19 days and terrorism in 90 days and local body election in 90 days as well, contrary to this, a number of corruption cases have surfaced in the dominion of the same party, even their own party workers were involved in the corruption. After that PTI worker from the United States, Mehboob Aslam claimed that he had raised funds for the party worth of 3 million USD from 2008 to 2013, whilst he had not been informed about this sum despite of asking. The list of corruptions continues but the 3 million USD corruption scandal jolted the roots of PTI and placed a big question mark of Imran Khan’s character, which were collected in the name of membership fund from the overseas Pakistanis, and no one knows what Imran did with the money.

By the passage of time Imran Khan has created many issues to distract the concentration from the real issues. He used to yell like a mad man at Shahbaz Sharif during his election campaigns, but soon after he regained his lost love for Sharif brothers and started to bash Altaf Hussain. Imran developed this habit during his cricket days when he used to sledge his opponents to divert their attention but as years past there are still no signs of maturity in Imran Khan.

On the other hand, Media persons and some well-known TV anchors faced an ugly barrage of abuse on social media sites by ‘PTI trolls’. This large section of the Imran Khan fan club showers anybody with a wide range of Urdu, Punjabi and English abuses if it believes that person has criticized Khan or his party.

In the 4th quarter of 2013, Imran Khan urged the Pakistan government to declare a ceasefire if it was serious about holding peace talks with militants and allow them to open an office in Pakistan. After this statement of Khan the conflict was emerged in the party and Asad Umar, a law maker of PTI said that party chief Imran Khan’s statement on Pakistani Taliban was not an official PTI policy statement.

PTI gained immense popularity during the build up to the 2013 elections and immersed as one of the most popular political parties of the nation. Although their performance could be termed as excellent for a new party, they have been losing popularity since then and matters have been worsened by intra-party conflicts and the desertion of members. Many PTI workers, supporters and even the leaders have left the party due to corruption, nepotism and tug of war between the ideological and not so ideological groups within PTI. A forward bloc has also emerged in KP assembly under which fourteen members of the PTI in the KP assembly have raised a banner of revolt against pro-Taliban policies of their own government in the province and formed a separate faction.

This is really an alarming situation for the PTI leadership and if the reservations of the forward bloc had not been addressed this could prove fatal for the future to PTI, with whom the youth of KP has associated their hopes on the May 11 last year.

Originally published on Pakistan Tribe.

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Inside-out corruption of Imran Khan

If we say that whatever mandate PTI got in the general elections last year was solely because of Imran Khan’s firm and clear stand against the corruption, it wouldn’t be wrong. The educated and privileged youth of the country went to support Imran only because of the promises he made, during his election campaign. But as we reflect on the track record of PTI and Imran Khan we only witness ‘Change’. Not exactly the change which Imran promised to the nation but a change that nobody could have imagined in his worst of nightmares.

Starting from Taliban apology to blocking NATO supplies and then representing TTP unofficially Imran Khan has always let down his followers. That is the basic reason, Imran seems to be losing the fan base that he gathered up in the last five to six years in a matter of months. His supporters and voters seem to be losing hope in him and the youth especially first-time voters have been left in limbo with nowhere else to go.

There was nothing surprising about Imran’s ascent in the political arena. People were tired of the same old faces, the same broken promises and needed a new ideal to latch on to. Consequently, most people followed Imran blindly, without giving any consideration to his political agenda and his views on important national issues. They gave him a ‘prophetical’ status, rallied for him, enrolled in the ‘Tabdeeli Razakar’ program and did what any patriotic Pakistani would have done. However, what the patriots did not realize was that the hype around Imran would soon fizzle out and things would go back to ground zero.

The most recent corruption scandal that has jolted the roots of PTI and placed a big question mark of Imran Khan’s character, is the missing 3 million USD, which were collected in the name of membership fund from the overseas Pakistanis, and no one knows what Imran did with the money. This news could be taken as authentic because the scam is revealed by a founding member of PTI itself, who claims that Imran Khan has misused his powers to such an extent that now he doesn’t have any other option left but to unmask the real Imran Khan.

Perhaps Imran and his supporters need to travel back in time and assess when things started falling apart.

Flash back:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was making waves and both, the young and old were flocking together to join the latest craze that was Imran Khan. He won the hearts of many with his charisma, fiery speeches, promises for a better Pakistan and open challenges to Mian Sahib and Zardari. He ignited political fervor in the rural areas as well as the urban, in the young as well as the old, in the illiterate as well as the educated.

Attending a PTI jalsa became the thing to do and people did only in the hope of seeing a changed Pakistan. PTI supporters wreaked havoc on social media too and a word against Imran would bring a barrage of insults your way. Then came May 11, 2013, when people woke up with hope in their eyes and patriotism in their hearts. Pakistani expatriates flew all the way to Pakistan to cast votes in favor of PTI and Imran, hoping for a change. He was claimed to be the only savior for this nation.

Where did things go wrong :

It is now clear that Imran Khan lacks political foresight and flexibility. His first major mistake was to lock horns with none other than the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). A little understanding, seat adjustment and alliance with the largest political party in Karachi could have given PTI a chance to establish itself and implement its manifesto which, by the way, was very much in line with the manifesto of MQM.

Imran was over-confident and thoroughly mistaken in assuming that he would be an overnight success in Karachi alone. Rigging or no rigging, PTI failed to cause any considerable dent in the vote bank of MQM, and the following by-elections, under surveillance of the army, gave credence to the fact that PTI was losing its popularity fast in this part of Pakistan.

His second crucial blunder was to team up with the Taliban and support their recent demand for opening up offices for the militants. His main stream followers are mostly educated elite and students, who cannot under any circumstances, support this stance, and this is fast causing a slump in his popularity.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), where PTI enjoys complete control, has seen no improvement and there seems to be no proper road map laid down by the chief minister and his team. Instead, the blood-thirsty Taliban are being given an opportunity to further implement their agendas.

What makes matters worse is that Imran Khan is running the show as a dictator, and even his own party members are not privy to his policies and decisions. Just recently, a statement made by Khan regarding the opening of a Taliban office has been completely disowned by his party member, Asad Umar who claimed that this was a personal wish of the Khan, and does not reflect the party’s official view.

Imran Khan who once rallied against nepotism, is now giving priority to the relatives and friends of main stream PTI leaders over common workers, for different party positions. it seems that PTI has become like any conventional Pakistani political party where affiliations are preferred over merit.

Suggestions for damage control:

It is obvious that PTI needs damage control and needs it fast. Instead of crying over rigged cases, PTI founding members need to set up an internal audit of the party funds and if Imran Khan pleads guilty in the corruption scam, he should resign from the party chairman as per his promise or PTI CEC should sack him for misusing his powers, which seems to be the only way out for the PTI. Because if PTI will not follow the policy of self accountability, then its quite obvious that Imran Khan will take the party to a new low and the dreams of PTI Youth will be shatters forever.

Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country. Karl Marx

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Romance between PTI and PPP

If I say that Cricketer turned politician Imran Khan’s politics is as unpredictable as the game of ‘Cricket’ it won’t be wrong.  He has made so many u-turn since he reentered with his Tsunamic entry into mainstream politics in 2010. Now people have started wondering why his name hasn’t been inducted in the Guinness book of world records yet, for taking most number of U-turns in his controversial political career .

Excluding Imran Khan’s long list of personal love affairs, his party PTI has also been in romance with almost all the parties for one reason or another. Most recently PPP has been contacted by PTI for their support in the upcoming local government elections to fight their common enemy PMLN in the provinces of KPK and Punjab. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t long ago when the Chairman of PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari used very harsh words against chairman PTI, when he called Imran Khan as TTP apologist and awarded him with the title of ‘Buzdil Khan’ (a coward). In addition to that Bilawal also accused Imran Khan of supporting TTP and called PTI as their political wing, while reacting to the controversial statements of PPP’s chairman the Information Secretary of PTI Shireen Mazari called Baby Bhutto as a ‘spoiled brat’.

If we look back on the series of events which have led to this highly unexpected development we will find that since the days of his election campaign Imran Khan had maintained a firm stand on PPP’s corruption.  It was Imran himself who used to call ex PM Raja Pervaiz Ashraf as Raja Rental and promised his potential voters that he will trial Mr. 10% (Zardari) the day he comes in power.  It seemed impossible that Imran Khan and PTI would ever join hands with the party that according to his statement is the most corrupt party in Pakistan ,PPP.

But as they say everything is fair in love and war, Imran’s love for power has brought him closer to PPP now and even knowing the fact that how PPP has patronized PAC (banned terrorist group from Lyari). PAC has blood of hundreds of innocent Karachiites on their hands and majorly responsible for the law and order mess in Karachi. He has undermined all these facts for his increasing lust for power.

On the other hand PPP, whose leadership was calling Imran a traitor and coward just few days ago has once again proven that there is no match for their reconciliation ( for power) politics. Does it mean that for PPP, Imran has turned into a brave leader from a coward one? Now they might support him in his promised NATO supply line blockage on 20th Nov, which may result in further destabilization of country’s political and economic condition, but who cares as I stated in the above paragraph ‘everything is fair, in love and war (on terror).’

If we look at PTI’s politics in KPK, it’s no less than a nightmare for the people of KPK and seems like nothing has changed for the better in KPK. More than 200 people have lost their lives but KPK Government thinks that infusing the syllabus of Islamiat (Islamic studies) with the doctrine of Jihad is comparatively more important than saving the lives of the civilians, who have been mercilessly left on the mercy of TTP’s peace ambassadors. I am not saying it myself, these are the words of Imran Khan who called a top notch terrorist of Al-Qaeda Wali ur Rehman  a peace activist.

Another thing which makes the situation even worse in KPK is the on-going competition for the best TTP apologist between Imran Khan, Munawar Hassan and Maulana Fazlur Rehman. They all seem to be in a hurry to make TTP happy for unknown reasons, may be they know that what TTP, did to ANP might happen to them as well.

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APC and PTI Stance‏

The government of Pakistan announced to hold an all-parties conference to discuss the solution of on going terrorism in Pakistan facing for years. Leaders of political parties are invited to discuss moot points and asked to give views on how to tackle the multiple problems. The idea of an APC had been given by none other than Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, before leaving to China he announced that an APC would be held on July 12 to discuss the menace of terrorism and drone attacks and evolve a policy to deal with them.

Imran Khan’s recent trip to the UK has given a clear indication that he doesn’t have any interest in resolving the terrorism issue, or his friends in & out of Pakistan aren’t allowing him to take any concrete steps in order to tackle the most serious issues of all, ‘Terrorism and Extremism’.

Khan’s untimely decision to leave Pakistan right before the (APC) has also raised many objections on Khan’s dedication to the Pakistan. He claimed multiple times during his election campaign that he won’t ever lie to the nation but when he left for UK with the excuse that he’s going abroad for getting some serious medical treatment (which was easily available in Pakistan) a large number of Pakistanis including those who voted for him were astonished to see him enjoying drinks in cocktail parties in UK, especially the royal gathering hosted by Prince Charles.

It is believed that the scheduled (APC) has been postponed due to Khan’s absence; this is also a matter of great concern for the moderate Pakistanis. It is also important to understand the rhetoric of the APC. In the last two APCs – one headed by the Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) and the other by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), all parties have agreed that political dialogue is the only solution for tackling terrorism, but TTP and other extremist and militant groups turned down the offer of talks. This ‘new’ APC could have brought about a firm decision that may have resulted in action against militants. In this scenario Khan’s move to pull out of APC at the eleventh hour made people curious and question his motives.

A month ago, militants distributed pamphlets in Mashogagar village (Peshawar) asking people not to shave their beards as it was un-Islamic. And now according to the villagers militants have enlisted at least six children from Sheikhan village. The armed men have been publicly proclaiming jihad to the villagers for the past few days without inviting any attention from law enforcement agencies. Dozens of armed militants belonging to the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) visit Sheikhan after Iftar, and urge people to join hands with them.

Except his apologetic tone for extremists, there is much more to question Imran Khan on. We can question his slogan of ‘change’ that he promised, we can also ask about the improvement in KPK. Where the frequency of attacks has increased.

I have heard that the PTI led KPK government has passed an ordinance where by anyone found eating or drinking during Ramazan can be fined up to Rs50, 000. Where is Imran Khan now? Is this the ‘Naya Pakistan’ Khan has been talking about??

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Self Destructive Tsunami

The attitude adopted by workers of PTI over losing the elections in Karachi and Punjab is childish say the least. Although the indiscipline, rowdyism and lack of respect from the side of PTI supporters towards their opponents is nothing new, they seem to be in a quest to reach new lows to falsely establish their popularity and implicate the opponents in rigging. PTI seems to be competing with itself for setting new lows of indecency and immorality in politics.

As the election results started pouring in the evening of 11th May, 2013, PTI supporters started protests all over the country, claiming rigging by rivals. Journalists covering the protests in several cities were manhandled.

In order to malign their opponents,Insafians running a malicious campaign over social media where they used edited pictures and videos to level rigging charges.

The NA-250 controversy has been blown so much out of proportion by Tsunami kids that it is increasingly becoming a war of classes, social media is flooded with pictures of MQM sit-in in front of ECP captioned with comments about the class of protesters which is indeed a very dirty act.

Imran Khan is a sportsman, & this proves that he never knows how to handle defeat that’s the same reason he failed to teach this art to his followers. Imran raised his  hopes to such an extreme level where he is not willing to accept anything but victory.PTI bears heavy loss in Punjab, Sindh & Balochistan but the way they only protesting against losing Karachi seats, appears to be a part of a bigger conspiracy.

The conspiracy is becoming clearer now as PTI has embraced Jamat-e-Islami in KPK. Who can forget Jamat-e-Islami’s rule in the fall of East Pakistan when its Al-Badar terrorist wing was unleashed on Awami League? PTI is playing the role which Jamat-e-Islami and other parties played in 1971, by not accepting the mandate of the people of Karachi.

Here I would like to mention speech of MQM Quaid Altaf Hussain which they think is controversial Altaf Hussain never demanded separation from Pakistan in his speech even no one in Karachi wants separation from Pakistan, but the way PTI took it out of context and launched a campaign over social media to register complaints against Altaf Hussain with London Metropolitan Police, shows that PTI is fail to bring change, it is as big an enemy of Karachi and its liberal mandate as Talibans, Jamati-e-Islami and other such parties are.

Taliban succeeded in dislodging one of their enemies, the ANP, now they will have their own proxy government in the shape of PTI and JI in KPK, but having failed to deter Karachites to vote for MQM with repeated terror strikes, Taliban have launched an indirect offensive on MQM through PTI, Jamat-e-Islami and banned organization like SSP/ASWJ, as these are the ones who have been holding sit-ins across Karachi against MQM’s mandate.

The double standards of PTI and some anchor persons also can be gauged from the fact that Akbar Bugti, the man who fought with Pakistan Army, attacked key national installations and openly demanded separation from Pakistan, is innocent in the eyes of PTI and anchor persons on the other hand Altaf Hussain who never do such act neither demanded separation from Pakistan, always stood with Army in war against terror and had the courage to openly challenge Taliban, is a traitor.

Imran Khan should not let the situation worsen, it is his responsibility to rein in his workers, who are getting dirtier & dirtier day by day with their comments and personal attacks against MQM and its leadership.

Altaf Hussain rightly pointed that being a true leader he has been advising his workers to show restraint, but like Imran Khan he too has number of fans not because of his political affiliation but being as a sportsman, the continuation of dirty campaign by PTI and the recent outburst of Khan against Altaf Hussain in connection of a female PTI leader can turn the situation extremely chaotic any moment.

I hope Imran Khan will learn something from Altaf Hussain and discipline his workers. Implementing discipline within party ranks will only benefit PTI, helping it to emerge as a stronger force in next elections.

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