Repeat of 2014: Why is IK in such a hurry?

ISLAMABAD: Battle lines are being drawn in the political arena of the country for the October 30th PTI show on lines similar to the case in 2014 after Imran Khan’s ill-timed lethal attack on Pakistan’s People’s Party.

Imran Khan’s decision to take a solo flight for his October 30th shutdown plan, coupled with his frontal assault on the PPP, has served a fatal blow to any chance left for the PPP and PTI to have a common strategy against the Nawaz Sharif government.

Instead, Imran Khan has strengthened Nawaz Sharif and now the PTI stands alone with minnows like Shaikh Rasheed to shut down the federal capital, completely, on Oct 30th forindefinite period and till the prime minister resigns.

Whether or not Imran Khan can do what he has announced, the situation appears to be the repeat of 2014. Dr Tahirul Qadri is though missing from the scene right now, there is a possibility that Chaudhrys of Gujrat may join IK’s Oct 30th show. However, most of the opposition parties are expected to side with the government instead of IK on this particular issue.

Before even IK’s latest attack and minus-Zardari formula for Pakistan Peoples Party, the PPP’s chairperson Bilawal Zardari Bhutto had cast aspersions on Khan’s plan to shut down Islamabad. Bilawal had said that his party would not be part of any move that may threaten the democratic system.

No other opposition party including Awami National Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan and even PTI’s ally in KPK Jamaat-e-Islami is willing to join Imran Khan's Oct 30th plan. Instead, they are opposed to the PTI’s never-ending politics of street agitation, sit-in and shut down.

On Thursday Imran Khan made an appeal to the nation to reach Islamabad on October 30, conveying that the PTI participants will not move away until the prime minister resigns or he presents himself for accountability. He added that he would not let the prime minister run the government until their demands were met.

Khan appears to be following his 2014 line of tactics without realising that those sit-ins had badly failed to achieve the goal of getting Nawaz Sharif ousted despite the alleged role of the then DG ISI as was claimed by a federal minister, independent media and pro-Imran media men. 

Previously the reason was “rigging”, which the PTI could not prove, now its “Panama corruption” against Nawaz Sharif. The PTI and some other political parties have formally approached the Election Commission as well as the Supreme Court of Pakistan to get Nawaz Sharif disqualified on the basis of the Panama Papers revelation.

Both the state institutions -- SC and ECP -- have already taken up the matter but to many’s utter surprise, Imran Khan is in a great hurry. He can’t wait anymore. Why? Nobody knows. However, there are different conspiracy theories making rounds. His decision to boycott the joint session of the parliament only a couple of days after his party participated in the APC under the prime minister’s chairmanship, surprised all and sundry even many within the PTI. 

Khan is not ready to wait for the outcome of the cases filed against Nawaz Sharif either before the ECP or the SC. He appears to have lost his hope from the ECP, whose members were recently appointed in consultation with the PTI. He still has some faith in SC but desires for an immediate verdict against the PM. 

He insists that the Panama Papers revelations are not mere allegations but a “proven” case of corruption against Nawaz Sharif. And thus Nawaz Sharif must resign now.