A frustrated Imran Khan has presented a nightmarish scenario about the future of the country while talking to a TV journalist. As he put it the country could be bankrupt and divided into three parts, there could be a civil war and the loss of nuclear assets.
Mr Khan has been frustrated and angry since he lost his job. He planned to lead the largest protest march in history but managed to collect hardly a few thousand on May 25. Finding that he could not create an impact with a humble gathering, he canceled the plan to camp in Islamabad and immediately returned to Peshawar. He promised however to return with a large crowd within six days. The hope that the Supreme Court would instantly issue orders to deter the unity government from creating hindrances in the protesters’ way was dashed to ground when PTI’s application was returned with objections. While hearing another case related to the Azadi March a SC bench observed that peaceful protest was a constitutional right but it must be exercised subject to permission by the state. This must have come as a damper to Mr Khan who wanted unrestrained freedom. A member of the SC bench even supported contempt proceedings against the PTI chief.
Another source of frustration for Mr Khan is the PML(N)-led government which is consolidating itself. It has made legislation to change the NAB law, appointed two missing ECP members and passed electoral reforms rejecting the use of EVMs and refusing to give the right of vote to expatriates through electronic voting. Fearful that he might be arrested on the basis of FIRs registered during the Azadi March, Mr Khan has chosen to live in KP.
Pakistan faces serious economic problems. These need to be tackled by the government seriously. What is required meanwhile is maintenance of social peace in the country. It is simply rubbish to talk about civil war or danger to nuclear assets.
Mr Khan sought the establishment’s support to come to power and agreed to share power with it. For nearly three years the PTI boasted of being on the same page with the establishment. Mr Khan cannot absolve himself by claiming that he was powerless to stop the persecution of free media, media trial and incarceration of political opponents, false cases against Justice Faez Isa and his wife and countless enforced disappearances. He should display moral courage to own these decisions.
