After losing power, PTI chief Imran Khan has become highly dangerous, as he had himself predicted. While speaking at the PTI’s Mardan rally he warned the government to announce polls failing which a sea of people will wash away everything. Coming from a former PM this is a highly irresponsible statement.
Mr Khan told journalists that Instead of handing over the reins of power to the ruling alliance, it would have been better if an atomic bomb had been dropped on Pakistan. Setting aside for a while his usual moralistic posture he made remarks that revealed the Machiavelli in him. He was unhappy that the the Army had not pressured the judiciary and NAB to sentence eight to ten opposition leaders. He said the army should not have discouraged the formation of a PML(N) forward bloc in the Punjab Assembly which wanted to join his party.
Such is the level of Mr Khan’s desperation that he has decided to simultaneously take on the establishment and the ruling alliance. He says he had forewarned the establishment that the country’s economy would go into a tailspin if the conspiracy against his government succeeded. Party leader Shireen Mazari was encouraged to go a step further, claiming that everyone knows ‘neutrals’ were not actually neutral during the so-called regime change conspiracy. They were in fact a part of the conspiracy to derail Pakistan on the economic and democratic front.
Fighting on two fronts is likely to lead to misadventure. Instead of getting his perceived grievances resolved through constitutional institutions set up for the purpose like Parliament, the judiciary and the Election Commission of Pakistan, Mr Khan is taking the issues to public rallies where he incites the mobs against those he considers the enemies of the country while other PTI leaders warn of civil war .
At Sialkot the government firmly disallowed the PTI from violating the law by holding a rally at a ground belonging to a minority community. The PTI agreed to hold the rally, meant to be over in a few hours, at an alternate venue. The multi-million march proposed towards the end of the month is likely to turn into a sit-in that will continue till the government announces a timeframe for elections acceptable to Mr Khan. The presence of charged mobs in the capital for days would create problems. To avert this, the PTI will have to reach a prior agreement with the government before the big march is allowed.
