Grow up Imran Khan!

Post May 11th 2013, the opportunities for Imran Khan were boundless. He had enthralled and mobilized the youth across the country on a platform of integrity, good governance and transparency. The country seemed to have been gripped and spell bound with Imran mania. So where did it all go wrong?
Imran Khan stepped into mainstream politics with a legacy embedded in achievement. His success in sports and philanthropy, now reduced to punch line in his political diatribe, was largely due to his pure intentions and motives grounded in national pride and altruism. He started his political life with many of the same ideals, but soon fell victim to power, false hopes, misguided ambitions and his own grandiose ego. He became the voice of oligarchs such as Jehangir Tarin, who hijacked PTI policies to pursue their own nefarious agendas. He marginalized and later ostracized the voice of reason and sagacity such as Javed Hashmi, that is now being realized immensely by some discerning members of PTI.
He started 126 days of dharna campaign with a rigid and untenable demand of the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, spiraling downwards to anarchist call for civil disobedience; on both counts he took an ignominious U turn. His caustic and acerbic rhetoric and personal attacks provided some drama and amusement in the early stages of the dharna but soon emerged to be erratic outbursts of a man clearly devoid of a plan strategy or message. He positioned himself not as a leader who is taking positive steps towards bringing sustainable change or “tabdeeli” but as a demagogue resorting to divisive political tactics and violent rhetoric, seeking councils from Machiavellian political advisors such as Sheikh Rasheed, who seems to have abandoned him lately.
Imran Khan earned opponents all along his political career. Not only the system, but also the political and judicial entities that had dedicated their lives for preservation of democracy in Pakistan for decades have been disappointed due to his moves. He has been hijacked by those encircling him. Besides, he fell victim to his own motives and intentions that drifted him away from his pursuits of reform and egalitarianism and were replaced by his desire for becoming the Prime Minister without offering any substantial policy or vision for the people of Pakistan.
The prime minister, during the chaos of the dharnas outside his front door, carried himself as a statesman. He remained patient despite the fact that his family members were subjected to rude and vulgar public attacks. He searched for a political solution to end the chaos; he strengthened and united the Parliament and remained focused, continuing to act in public interest. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif countered Imran Khan’s inaction by working to obliterate terrorism from Pakistan by implementing National Action Plan, securing economic prosperity, embarking on Pakistan China Economic corridor and vastly improving the infrastructure through metro bus services and networks of motorways across Pakistan.
In the by elections, the people delivered their verdict by overwhelmingly voting for the PML-N in PTI constituencies. Imran Khan continues to underestimate the enduring legacy of democracy in Pakistan and the electorate that want to live in a country free from the savage rhetoric and inertia that Imran Khan has to offer.
Imran Khan, rather than reflecting on what went wrong continues to be recalcitrant, as evident in his press conference post JC report, demanding the prime minister’s apology for the disruptions caused by the dharna that he initiated on false allegations. Imran Khan believes himself to be morally and principally superior to those around him. He would, at this point, be best advised to indoctrinate an aphorism from Ernest Hemingway; “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man, true nobility is being superior to your former self”. His nobility now lies in two options; one is to accept responsibility for his egregious failures and reinvent PTI, leading to conciliatory political dialogue, utilizing the sacred platform of Parliament and his mandate in KPK. The second is to step aside and allow PTI to choose a leader that understands the nuances of politics. Either way Imran Khan has to choose to lead PTI to become a credible voice in the national discourse or swayed into more ignominy.
Imran Khan now needs to reprioritize and refocus his political direction, review and restructure his political advisors and devise a strategy to deliver as per his party manifesto. Imran Khan once a beacon of hope for many now casts a heavy shadow of deceit and ruthless and misguided ambition even the most ardent PTI supporters have turned away in dismay at his conspicuously deceitful misguided political agenda, which is now emerging as the stain in the political history of Pakistan.
The author is a PML-N MNA