Siege of the citadel

Fleeting moments

PTI Chairman Imran Khan has issued a fresh date of      November 2   for Islamabad’s lockdown. He is determined to bring the functioning of the state to a halt. According to party stalwarts, different strategies to seal the capital are under consideration.

Khan like a no-nonsense martinet is training his troopers for the final storming of the bastion of power. Unlike in 2014 when PAT’s Sheikhul Islam Tahirul Qadri was his dharna partner, Khan is now going solo.     

The PTI claims its Raiwind rally was a success. And Imran Khan was able to pull a large crowd. Reportedly, many among the crowd were people ferried all the way from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. That raises another question. Could the PTI arrange such rallies were it not in power in KP? During the party’s rallies in Punjab, the chief minister of KP and his ministers used their official patronage to make the rallies successful, not to mention misuse of official transport.        

How do crowds gather at rallies? It’s not only Imran Khan; every politician seems to pull a huge crowd. Recently, the PPP’s budding leader Bilawal Bhutto addressed a big rally in Karachi. Similarly, the PML-N managed to collect a motley crowd in its rally in Mardan. Apparently, thousands of people have nothing worthwhile to do in our overpopulated country. They are readily available to swell the ranks of political rallies and chant slogans. People even gather around the site of a minor traffic accident – not to help the suffering but to watch.      

Among the educated class it is frequently asked why people elect leaders who are visionless and corrupt, and hence unworthy of leadership. The poverty-illiteracy combine is the answer. A large majority among the masses who vote in elections is illiterate, poor, and lives from hand to mouth. Voters are easily lured by false promises. Clannish links and the biradri      system play a dominant role in tipping the scales between the winning and losing candidates.       

However, the purpose of the blockade of the capital is to force the prime minister to either resign or face accountability for allegedly owning properties in London. In 2014, Imran Khan staged his 126-day dharna to protest against rigging in elections; now he has planned his siege of the capital against corruption. The moving spirit behind the dharnas, sit-ins and blockades is the tempestuous Khan who has kept the political cauldron on the boil since his party couldn’t win enough seats to crown him as the prime minister.

Bilawal Bhutto has joined Imran Khan’s chorus and demanded of Mian Nawaz Sharif to come clean on the Panama leaks issue. No one would contest the high moral ground Bilawal Bhutto has taken. But, at the same time, it is fair to demand that the $60 million skimmed through Swiss custom assessment companies – SGS and Cotecna – during a PPP tenure in the past be repatriated to the public exchequer.

Nevertheless, Imran Khan claims that these protests are his constitutional right, and many would agree with him. But hasn’t he exercised his right once too often? The Chinese envoy had to meet him to clarify the PTI’s position on the CPEC. With the perpetual state of protests in the country, our Chinese friends might wonder if they were landing in a hornet nest by investing in Pakistan.       

Imran Khan should wait for his turn. In his assay ‘Waiting’, Lance Marrow wrote, “Waiting can have a delicious quality, and sometime waiting is better than the event awaited. All life is a waiting, and one should not be too eager for the wait to end. The region that lies on the other side of waiting is eternity.”

Let’s   see Imran Khan occupy the Prime Minister House after winning the next election. For now, he should enjoy ‘delicious quality’ in waiting.

The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore.

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