LAHORE: Having submitted their resignations from the National Assembly on August 22, 2014, some 34 lawmakers of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) will be returning to the lower house of the parliament on Monday (today) after a gap of exactly 224 days, meeting and facing the fellow legislators they had branded as “political orphans” and “product of rigging” just months ago. While the PTI was staging a sit-in at Islamabad in August 2014 against the Nawaz Sharif government over alleged rigging in the May 2013 general elections, Imran Khan’s key aides Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Arif Alvi and Shireen Mazari had submitted 34 resignations at the office of the National AssemblySpeaker. By the way, it remains to be seen how Imran Khan addresses the National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq today. Will the PTI Chief start with the customary salutation “Mr. Speaker” today before delivering his speech on Pakistan’s role in the Yemen crisis? Although a former Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan Kanwar Dilshad had viewed on August 22, 2014 that as per rules, the PTI lawmakers’ assembly membership had ceased the moment they had tendered their resignations, Imran Khan and nearly three dozen of his lieutenants would still be participating in the important joint session today. But like most other key Pakistani politicians, Imran Khan too has this history of taking U-turns pretty often and eating his own words. Apart from opting to contest the recent Senate elections, deciding to continue retaining the membership of the Kyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly despite having dubbed the May 2013 polls “bogus,” then inciting the general public to launch a civil disobedience movement and then paying his annual taxes/electricity bills, here follow just a handful of more incidents where Imran Khan had stunned many of his followers by changing his stance frequently. a) It was during his speech at the October 30, 2011 rally that Imran Khan had said: “I am going on a tour to China tonight on the invitation of the government of China. We will strengthen our ties with China.” And in September 2014, we all heard the sad news of the Chinese President Xi Jinping postponing/canceling his visit to Pakistan. The ruling PML-N claimed the Chinese head of state was due to sign and approve his country’s $34 billion investment in Pakistan’s development projects. On the other hand, Imran Khan said the $34 billion was due to land in the national coffers in shape of an expensive loan, and not as Chinese investment. During his October 2011 speech, this is what Imran had aired about Pakistan Army: “PTI will ensure that Pakistan Army never launches an operation against its own citizens and that we never beg from any country ever again.” This was the time when a PML-N turncoat, former Punjab Governor and the President of General Musharraf-led PML-Q, Mian Azhar, was also seen addressing the rally.Mian Azhar has since lost into the oblivion, as have many other PTI leaders like Mairaj Mohammed Khan (formerly an old guard of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto), Nazim Haji, Abdul Hafeez Khan, Owais Ghani, Dr Abdul Mateen and Dr Mohammad Farooq——most of whom had surfaced as the founding members of this Imran-led political entity on April 25, 1996. Many of these founding members had either resigned or were sidelined by the party’s powerful decision-making tiers. b) On September 13, 2014, while addressing his supporters at the much-publicised Islamabad sit-in, Imran Khan had said that he would reveal the names of two PML-N Lower House parliamentarians from Lahore and a police officer, who were involved in the murder of an MQM MNA Tahira Asif, adding he would also shed light on the killers of another Balochistan legislator Hendry Masih. Saturday came and passed by. People had come in good numbers to know about the names of the two Lahore MNAs, but Imran kept mum on it. The whole media was eagerly waiting for the names of the alleged killers of Tahira Asif and Hendry Masih, but it all proved out to be a cheap gimmick to stop the depleting crowds at his Islamabad show. Imran perhaps wanted to open a Pandora’s box, but then deviated from his stance for unknown reasons. c) Flanked these days by a heterogeneous group of people like Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Khurshid Kusuri, Jehangir Tareen, Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali, Aleem Khan, Ijaz Chaudhary and Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed etc (all of whom happen to be known political turncoats hailing from PML-N, PML-Q, PPP and the Jamaat-e-Islami), Imran Khan had first supported General Pervez Musharraf’s 2001 referendum by holding many massive public processions for his cause. But history has it that after developing differences with the military dictator, Imran had turned against him and had apologised to the nation, a decision that came quite late though, and not before the PTI Chairman had enjoyed the cozy sofas of the National Assembly from 2002 to October 2007. Imran had resigned with 84 other legislators on October 2, 2007 or just 43 days before the expiry of the then National Assembly’s stipulated five-year term—-in a bid to undermine the October 6, 2007 re-election of the then President Pervez Musharraf. In fact, Imran had joined hands with both the “corrupt” Bhutto and Sharif in trying to unseat Musharraf. d) Imran had then played a key role in getting Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary restored as country’s arbiter, but then he blamed him and superior judiciary vehemently for orchestrating the “rigged” May 2013 polls by maneuvering the Returning Officers in favour of Nawaz Sharif. However, during the course of an August 2, 2013 hearing, Imran took a U-turn in Supreme Court and claimed that he deeply respected the judiciary and his statements against judiciary were only limited to “Returning Officers.” Imran had claimed that he never said anything against the superior judiciary, while reminding the judiciary that he was part of the movement for restoration of judiciary. Imran Khan had then requested Supreme Court to take back the contempt notice served on him. The answer submitted by Imran Khan and his legal team was rejected twice by Supreme Court. e) Imran Khan had vociferously supported the appointment of Chief election Commission Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, but after losing the 2013 polls, he had unleashed a barrage of allegations against him. f) We can all recall when Imran Khan had announced to lodge some criminal cases against MQM chief Altaf Hussain nearly eight years back when over 50 people were killed in Karachi on May 12, 2007—-or the day when deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary had landed in Karachi with his buddy Aitzaz Ahsan. The top arbiter and his cronies were left stranded at the airport due to massive turmoil and bloodshed outside. Imran did go to London and did reportedly hire lawyers to contest cases against Altaf Hussain, but had soon lost interest in that context and the idea to file cases was dropped. Imran’s political opponents like the PML-N often allege that he had once brokered a ‘silent deal’ with the MQM boss Altaf Hussain to get his public meeting arranged in Karachi on December 25, 2011. Imran’s political critics had then speculated that he had reached an out-of-court settlement with MQM and the two parties had agreed that while the Sita White case would not be followed and pursued in the United States by the MQM, the PTI Chief would reciprocate the gesture by not filing any petition against Altaf Hussain in London. g) During his Karachi public meeting of December 2011, as archives prove, Imran had not uttered a single word about MQM and its leadership. Then the events took another turn. Just days after the May 2013 elections, Imran Khan had again turned against Altaf, accusing him of killing the PTI Sindh Vice-President, Zahra Shahid Hussain, in Karachi. Around 30,000 calls were registered by Scotland Yard and London police by the PTI workers against Altaf Hussain’s alleged ‘hate speech’ three days later. h) A similar love-hate relationship has been maintained by Khan with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif too. Since the last 18 years, Imran is regularly accusing Nawaz Sharif as being the most corrupt politician Pakistan has ever produced. It is not a secret that the land for Imran’s Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital in Lahore was sanctioned by none other than Nawaz Sharif himself nearly two decades ago. The duo used to play Cricket together at the Lahore Gymkhana in those days. After the May 2013 elections, television cameras had shown Imran according a tumultuous welcome to Premier Nawaz Sharif at his Bani Gala Islamabad residence. On Imran’s request, the Premier had reportedly ordered the speedy construction of the Rs1 billion Bani Gala to Islamabad Highway and funds were sanctioned to the Capital Development Authority. PTI spokesman, however later denied Imran having made any such request to the visiting prime minister. i) Let us also take this opportunity to talk a bit about Imran Khan’s “bumpy romance” with Rawalpindi’s Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed—-his closest ally these days. In 2004-2005, Imran had termed Sheikh Rasheed as the worst politician Pakistan had ever produced. Paying him back in the same coin, Sheikh Rasheed had dubbed Khan a lone politician who lacked political wisdom and pragmatism. This is what Imran had exactly said about Sheikh Rasheed in a television programme: “I would prefer to be a failed politician rather than become a ‘successful’ one like Shiekh Rashid. At least I will be able to look in the mirror without being embarrassed at myself.” j) Over a decade ago, a few media skirmishes were also reported between Imran Khan and the Chaudhrys of Gujrat. While Imran had lashed out against the two Chaudhrys and their PML-Q, the cousin politicians from Gujrat had accused him of misusing the Shaukat Khanum Hospital funds. This media fight was similar to what Imran has with Maulana Fazlur Rehman and others on daily basis—-something that has made him politically isolated. But Imran is used to all this. His friends say since he claims to be a tiger in the jungle, so he cannot afford to be humble! k) Imran’s stance against US drone attacks was also quite lenient in 2011. He did stage sit-ins at Peshawar roads with his key KP government ally Jamaat-e-Islami for a week or so, as a token of protest again the drone killings, but had never really made any serious effort to prevent Nato oil tankers from entering into Afghanistan and serve the needs of the United States and its allies. This probably was the reason why Imran Khan had not attended the December 18, 2011 “Difa-e-Pakistan rally in Lahore. This meeting was arranged by 40 religious parties to pass on a soft message to US at a juncture when the Memogate scam had left the Asif Zardari regime trembling—-fearing the Army would make it face the wall for good.
