PTI chief Imran Khan was left blue in the face when the army rejected his narrative that PTI’s government was removed through a foreign conspiracy. It is customary within the unquestioning PTI followers to accept whatever Mr Khan says as Gospel truth. Anyone opposing the PTI supremo’s stand is routinely accused of being on the payroll of the “thieves and traitors”, terms reserved for the leaders of the PML(N) and PPP. It would have been embarrassing to find those with whom PTI had been on the same page for most of its tenure giving the lie to its narrative
The PTI’s conspiracy narrative has been rejected now by the Supreme Court also which maintains that sufficient evidence was not presented to support the PTI’s claim of foreign interference. The contents of the cipher were not shown either to the Supreme Court or to members of the National Assembly. Nor has evidence been provided detailing the names of the MNAs associated with the alleged conspiracy and the inducement, coercion or influence used by them to procure other members of the National Assembly to vote for the no-confidence move.
Imran Khan however remains adamant. Instead of paying heed to the apex court’s observations he maintains that the court should have investigated to whom this message for the removal of the PM was addressed.
Fawad Chadhry, who fully supported the way the courts and the establishment treated the PML(N) and PPP leaders and took part in their media trial, has suddenly turned into a super democrat by criticizing the establishment’s role in politics. He says it is not for a judge or the one who has taken a commission in the Army to do politics. It is an irony that a party that was brought to power by establishment is now cursing it because it thinks the establishment is supporting its rivals this time.
The ruling alliance is divided on how to treat Mr Khan. Some of the PML(N) leaders who have suffered under the PTI rule want him to be tried under Article 6. The PPP. which needs support in Punjab to further its agenda in the days to come, wants to deal softly with Mr Khan with Qamar Zaman Kaira asking him to name any judge of his choice so that a proper inquiry commission could be constituted so he may not have any excuse but to accept the findings of the probe.
