Is it just me or has someone else also noticed how the cowardly and condemnable attack on Imran Khan has shocked the entire nation, at least the country’s top decision makers, into throwing the rulebook right out the window? Just try to get answers to some very straight forward questions and you’ll see what I mean.
Let’s not forget that the attack took place when the long march, at least in PTI’s view, was on the way to snowballing into Islamabad and snatching haqeeqi azadi for the people. Imran said he knew about it, complete with details about the alleged masterminds whom he duly named and shamed, because elements from “within the intelligence agencies” ratted on their bosses. This is a very serious charge and one that Imran would surely want to be investigated even if he was not the target.
Let’s also remember that Imran’s been on the war path ever since he was removed from office. And with a lot of people firmly on his side, he’s felt confident enough to pick a fight with the establishment whose “black sheep” he accuses of indulging in things like the hit on him.
Now you’d expect someone in his position to waltz from the hospital straight to the court and present all his evidence there. He should also have welcomed a formal medico-legal inspection to prove his claim about “four bullets”, loaded an FIR with all necessary evidence – which should not have been a problem since his party runs Punjab — and then put the spotlight on the investigation and the court case.
Instead, he’s not interested in any medical report except from his own hospital, the Punjab police had to be arm-twisted into registering the FIR, the contents of which he doesn’t agree with, and the delay in getting the ball rolling compromised the crime scene and ensured that no evidence of any worth could be investigated in time by the police.
The government, for its part, can do little more than nudge the judiciary to conduct a full court inquiry into the allegations, with the PM vowing to “quit politics” if found involved in any way. Imran welcomed the proposal but brushed it aside in the same breath because the prime minister, interior minister and a very senior intelligence officer aren’t ready to resign first just because he said so without presenting any evidence at all. Now he’s added yet another twist to the drama by claiming that soon he’ll name another official who monitored the attack from a “control room” as it went down.
Wouldn’t people, who want nothing more than clean politics and real freedom and for whom Imran is risking his life, have been served better if he had followed legal requirements to the letter, exposed the “script” he keeps mentioning only his outbursts and interviews, and let the law remove the PM, interior minister and the intelligence officer he’s accusing, instead of asking them to go away themselves? How is hiding the facts about something this important, refusing to follow legal procedure, and getting his hordes to burn tires and block roads any better from the people’s point of view?
There are a lot more PTI loyalists around now than when I counted among volunteer lobbyists for the party in the Gulf a decade and a half ago. Unlike those days, now they lash out at journalists who even begin to question his tactics and policies. But they forget that Imran has always invited greater scrutiny than others; first because of his tall claims and now because of his outlandish accusations.
Judging from what he’s put on the table so far, it seems he wants heads to roll, and the army to be cut down to size, on his word alone. Otherwise he’ll get his legions of followers to block roads and keep people from taking their children to hospitals – plenty of video evidence on that count – until the government caves in.
And, of courses, anybody who doesn’t agree is a traitor, Mir Jafar, even not a proper Muslim.
The attack was a truly despicable thing, no doubt about it, but it was also a possible pivot point for Imran to turbo charge his “revolution”. But that would have worked only if he was being completely honest about everything. Judging by how he’s only muddied the water even more since then, without presenting a shred of evidence even though he could have, he’s only raising questions that nobody seems interested in answering.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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