ISLAMABAD: After nearly a month’s gap Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has again upped the ante, basing his usual threats and frequently repeated claims on the report of a one-man commission about vote recount in NA-122 Lahore.
Even before the election tribunal judge Kazim Ali Malik, could pronounce his decision on the findings of the commission after hearing the two sides and the overall challenge of Imran Khan to the victory of Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, the PTI chief has demanded the latter’s resignation.
This is not the first time that he has made a forceful attempt to influence the tribunal judge. He has a pattern of putting pressure on different high-placed individuals and institutions to get the results of his liking. At times, he succeeded while at others he failed.
After withdrawing his demand for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s resignation for having assumed office on the basis of ‘massively rigged’ elections in 2013, Imran Khan has now settled with the call for resignation of the Speaker as, according to him, he has lost the moral authority to continue in office.
As per his standard practice, he fired the first salvo, prompting chief government spokesman
and information minister Senator Pervez Rashid to respond to give a lie to his assertions. Regardless of what the PTI chief demands and claims, he reiterated his approach of interpreting electoral irregularities as poll rigging.
But he is not ready to wait for the decision of the tribunal commission, and has pronounced his own judgment that unprecedented manipulation took place in NA-122 and that it was because of rigging that Ayaz Sadiq defeated him.
There was a remarkable political harmony in the three All Parties Conferences (APCs) attended by the parliamentary leaders of all political shades including the PTI in the wake of the massacre of the Peshawar Army Public School (APS). It prevailed even for some time after these meetings. It
was because of this horrible incident that the PTI had ended its four-month old sit-in.
All this was meant to demonstrate complete unity across the political landscape so that the terrorists are eliminated with one voice as the tragedy left no room for politics for petty gains and demands. But sadly, Imran Khan has reverted to his old self, endangering the national harmony and accord. He has threatened to be out on streets in protest, reiterating what he stated on countless occasions during his earlier lingering protest.
He is frustrated over the government’s refusal to spell out the terms of reference of his choice for a Supreme Court judicial commission. The two sides had made considerable progress during various rounds of dialogue, but deadlock persists on at least three points. The government is ready to discuss the contentious points through negotiations.
“The returning officers (ROs) and presiding officers were backed by the then caretaker government. Weren’t they present when the people’s mandate was being stolen? Who was behind them?” the PTI chief asked.
Thus, Imran Khan restated that there was a conspiracy to defeat the PTI and benefit the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), but he is unwilling to let the expected judicial commission probe the ‘conspiracy’ he alleges. He wants the judicial forum to investigate his allegations regarding general irregularities with the objective of portraying the findings of the commission as rigging.
Any forceful protest by the PTI for any reason would distract everybody’s attention from the first-ever stringent campaign against terrorists, which was begun after the Peshawar school carnage. This protest doesn’t sound logical when Imran Khan had called off its grand sit-in saying that the nation needs unity and single-mindedness. Has terrorism been taken care of that he is starting the protest again?