Imran obsessed with hatred of Nawaz

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s bombastic address to the Raiwind public meeting was as usual replete with a plethora of threats, allegations and accusations repeated for countless times in the recent past and contained not a single new point except his announcement to shut down Islamabad.

The most sickening remarks came from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who even forgot that he was a provincial chief executive and part of the democratic system he called names. His unbecoming utterances apparently turned out to be unanticipated even for Imran Khan and his confidante Jehangir Tareen, who were ostensibly amused and amazed and couldn’t hide their meaningful grins.

The PTI chairman’s speech was also full of his characteristic threats, slurs and insults hurled over leading individuals and political rivals specifically Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The key state institutions were his favourite objects of attack and threats simply because they are not knocking out the premier, without any credible evidence, as he dreams.

Even the Supreme Court was not spared. It became evident when Imran Khan asked it as to why it failed to take suo motu notice of the Sharif family’s corruption whereas it had been taking such notices in the past.

His repeat of the old stuff sounded like a stuck record. Even different video clips played on large screens showing different statements of the members of the Sharif family and three federal ministers about the London flats and offshore companies were the same that had exhibited with the same fanfare by him at his Faisalabad rally some five months back.

At the end of his protracted talk, it transpired that Imran Khan had transported an impressive crowd to the Adda Plot from all over Pakistan to hear his pompous pronouncement to close down the federal capital as part of his unending agitation. However, confusion prevails about the precise timing of blocking Islamabad. Will it be after tenth of Moharram or forty days after the start of this month? It is presumed that the protest will be held after tenth, most possibly after the middle of the current month, because the desperate man is in a great hurry and wants to meet some deadline.

The PTI chairman’s bragging that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be vigilant while having evil designs against Pakistan that Pakistanis are not coward like Nawaz Sharif was disgusting. This demonstrated how insensitive he is in his contempt against the premier. He didn’t care that an aggressive policy against India has been pursued by Nawaz Sharif even prior to consultations with the political parties on the tensions that will take place next week.

A few days before Imran in a rally termed Modi an honest person.

Imran Khan further reinforced his isolation by ridiculing all political parties in the same vein. Previously, his assertion had exasperated only the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), but the repetition of his remark angered all the political forces. “I was criticised for being left alone by my allies. I have been calling them to join me against a corrupt prime minister. Did I ask them for a hand in matchmaking or something that they got angry? One said he was not ready to go outside Nawaz Sharif’s residence while the other had some other excuse for not coming.”

Every party worth the name in Pakistan’s history has been mending fences with all political forces while running an anti-government campaign because their joining certainly strengthens its movement. But ‘popularity’ has gone to Imran Khan’s head so much that instead of taking along other parties in this drive, he has further alienated them, which obviously benefits the government.

The PTI chairman has always painted his every protest as the last nail in the coffin of the present regime. For weeks, he drummed up the same theme about the Raiwind March, which was finally converted into a public rally as most discerning and informed people believed since word go. Unprecedented hype was created about what was just a one-day show.

He described it as the last public meeting against the prime minister and stated that he would no more hold any rallies against him but make a decisive move, which was unspecified. It is likely that he wants to organize an extended sit-in in the capital like that of 2014. But it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to repeat that because what he doesn’t admit is that his fans are incapable of a lengthy protest. His previous drama was successful only for the first few days to later become an embarrassment with chairs being empty at the D-Chowk. His show went on in the initial days only because PAT chief Allama Tahirul Qadri’s zealots, gathered at the same venue, provided him a readymade crowd around the clock, a luxury that will not be available now.

Imran Khan wanted instant conviction of the prime minister without any trial and proceedings when he said Nawaz Sharif’s corruption, as reflected by the Panama Papers, was an open and shut case. He charged that the premier committed four crimes - concealment of assets, corruption, tax evasion and money-laundering for which every proof was there and Nawaz Sharif should be indicted. But he did not talk about the veracity of these very charges against his own person, Jehangir Tareen, Aleem Khan, Liaquat Tarakai and Shahram Tarakai.

One fact became immensely clear once again that the PTI chairman will continue to serve as a principal political destabilizer at all costs. In the wake of consistent failure to dislodge the premier through innumerable theatrics, his desperation has touched its zenith. In the process, Pakistan has already suffered a lot and will suffer more due to his agitation.