A Letter from Prometheus
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan claims he is fighting against western powers; particularly the USA which, according to him, has taken away the sovereignty of Pakistan.
For accusing the Pakistan Army to be part of a conspiracy against Pakistan, he gives examples from the rules of Gen Ziaul Haq and Gen Musharraf, who according to him had been working for the interests of Washington instead of protecting Pakistan’s sovereignty.
After establishing that Pakistan is not a sovereign country, he is selling the dream of an independent state if he is allowed to rule again, therefore he says that his struggle against the sitting government is actually the struggle for “real Independence” because Pakistan is not an independent country. He categorically says that India has a sovereign foreign policy but Pakistan had never enjoyed this pleasure.
His thoughts look novel, exciting, attractive, and honest for those who do not have an idea of a long history of different political philosophies that spread mostly in Europe and South America and died down after disastrous outcomes. The dream that Imran Khan is selling is not different from what the political philosophy of Revolutionary Nationalism believes.
The political philosophy of Revolutionary Nationalism brought several nationalist political movements aiming to achieve so-called “independence” from “foreign dependence” in Europe, South America, and Africa.
Born in France, this political philosophy strongly influenced revolutionary forces against the established order of their eras. Some of the known movements were the French Revolution, the Irish Republicans engaged in armed struggle against the British Crown, the Cần Vương movement against French rule in Vietnam, Mexican Revolution, Benito Mussolini, and the Italian Fascists, the Autonomous Government of Khorasan, Augusto Cesar Sandino in Nicaragua, the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement in Bolivia and several minor movements of African independence, that came to the surface during the 1950s and 1960s.
Leaders of these movements first indoctrinated their followers that they were not independent and some social groups or foreign powers were ruling them directly or indirectly. The second phase was preparing their followers to break down the system and the third phase was to create a new system. The majority of movements evaporated after creating unrest and chaos between phases two and three. The majority of leaders left the countries and got asylum in other countries and some of them were killed by their followers when nothing came out of the disastrous breakdown of the administrative systems of their countries. One similarity in all nationalist revolutionary movements was the simplicity of their leaders. They were from masses and they lived with masses.
In Pakistan, former Prime Minister Imran Khan looks like a leader who is impressed by these movements after losing his 42-months government. Imran Khan is telling his followers that he is one of them and he is struggling for them. A man who had been spending money out of government exchequer amounting to Rs 800,000 per day for 42 months to travel 20 kilometers per day between his office and his residence spreading over hundreds of acres of land, is of the view his struggle is for a Pakistan where everybody would be equal, though he is running his mass protest campaign by traveling in a state-owned, state-run helicopter.
Constant pressure through dharnas (sit-ins) and pitching legal battles would send a message abroad that the sitting government is not operational therefore foreign investments would be discouraged and the government under pressure would be vulnerable in front of foreign lending agencies. Imran Khan who played havoc with the economy during his 42-months government knows Pakistan needs financial help from abroad otherwise it would default
Amazingly, when he lost the majority in the House and was about to be voted out then he realized that his country was not sovereign and the idea of true independence compelled him to ask his followers to come on the road and remove the government that had been formed as a result of his being voted out.
Having an opportunity of disbanding the National Assembly before that voting out was a chance Imran Khan missed and now he is demanding the dissolution of the National Assembly and quick announcement of general elections.
His political opponents believe that the idea of a US-sponsored conspiracy came to his mind when he had already lost his majority in the House and now he is trying to spread anarchy in the country because he does not want to see anybody sitting in the Prime Ministerial chair except him.
There is no doubt that demanding resignation from sitting governments is the core of his politics. He did the same in 2014 but the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not bow down to his demand though Imran Khan sat outside Parliament building for 128 days. If we talk about his 2014 Dharna (sit-in), I witnessed that participation never surpassed a number of 20,000 participants although he had the courtesy of almost everybody, and virtually the entire media was manipulating information in his favour, portraying 20,000 people as 200.000. The results of all such manipulation were zero: no resignation, no change in government, and elections held as per schedule.
The then PML(N) government did not resign even though the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court. The PML(N) government completed its tenure under the new PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. General Elections were held as per schedule in 2018 and Imran Khan formed the government with a margin of one vote. He failed to bag a simple majority needed for his rule but he managed to form the government through extensive post-election engineering.
Now he is again demanding the resignation of the government and new elections before the scheduled time of August 2023. On March 25, he entered Islamabad with his Azadi March after the Supreme Court ordered the multiparty government to ease its administrative grip over the situation and let him enter Islamabad. Having the entire administrative machinery of the KPK government, including the helicopter of the KPK Chief Minister, Imran Khan virtually failed to enter Islamabad with 15,000-plus protesters though he was claiming he would gather two million people. The result was simple: he went to his Banigala residence, had a rest for a day, and went back to Peshawar which is his base camp nowadays.
He held a press conference in Peshawar on May 27 and threatened the government to resign otherwise he would announce another protest within a week. He has written a letter to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for getting approval for free movement of his protesters so he can come again to Islamabad and pitch a tent village and do laundry outside the Supreme Court building as he did in 2014.
I believe Imran Khan knows the government would not resign but he wants to keep building pressure on the sitting government so it fails to work effectively. His legal team is strong and he would keep the government busy between the PM Secretariat and Supreme Court.
I think if Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif really wishes to continue peacefully for 14 months, then he must etablish a special cell in the Ministry of Law that can be in contact with the Supreme Court of Pakistan and can take advice from it before taking any administrative decision like transfers, postings, initiating any new project, moving any bill in the National Assembly because the PTI legal team is so heavyweight that it would move the Supreme Court against every administrative decision of the multiparty government. PTI can challenge transfers and postings, stating these are politically motivated and must be stopped, new projects can be called “actions against the public interest”, bills can be called “in contradiction of human rights” and so on. I fear every executive decision would be challenged in the courts to halt the normal working of the administrative machinery.
Constant pressure through dharnas (sit-ins) and pitching legal battles would send a message abroad that the sitting government is not operational therefore foreign investments would be discouraged and the government under pressure would be vulnerable in front of foreign lending agencies. Imran Khan who played havoc with the economy during his 42-months government knows Pakistan needs financial help from abroad otherwise it would default.
“The lion is most handsome when looking for food.” — Rumi
