Imran’s latest

No politician has mastered the dark art of attracting media attention through over-the-top rhetoric and actions quite like Imran Khan. Much like Donald Trump in the US, the PTI chief sees his every utterance covered to the point where almost everyone else is crowded out. Yet that is not good enough for Imran. He has now demanded that PTV allow him to broadcast an official address to the nation. Imran has every right to complain how the state broadcaster played down the significance of the Panama Papers by only offering the government’s version – a frequent complaint by opposition parties no matter which government is in power – but to insist on being given an official address is overkill. The government has responded by saying this is impossible as only the president or the prime minister of the country are afforded that honour and it would require the permission of the National Assembly speaker to change the rules. Without even considering the question of PTV’s policies and procedures, there are many reasons to deny Imran his absurd demand. There is no justification for giving this privileged megaphone to the leader of the third-largest party in parliament. If he is allowed to make an official address, then the leader of every other party will rightly demand the same opportunity. This is yet another instance of Imran manufacturing a controversy himself for no reason but to declare himself persecuted and claim he alone should be ruling the country. There is no other reason for a man who captured television cameras for months during his Islamabad dharna to moan about being denied a media platform.

As usual, the furore that Imran has created ended up overshadowing the original controversy, in this case the PML-N responding to the criticism over the Panama Papers leak by claiming Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital also used offshore companies. While that is true, the hospital had declared its use of the offshore company for investment purposes. The issue is not offshore companies themselves but their misuse to dodge paying taxes and to get money out of the country. Imran had a point about the government’s smear tactics but he then went and squandered his moral advantage by ginning up drama over PTV for reasons of pure self-aggrandisement. The martyr pose Imran constantly maintains is hurting the PTI, which has done nothing to build momentum from the 2013 elections and is still regarded as having more flash than substance.