Wait for the change

PTI fans are enthusiastic about their leader’s recent visit to a NAB court in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sans protocol. They cite the example as a foreteller of non-extravagant times under the PTI government. A video clip is also being widely circulated on social media with fawners heard in background showering paeans of praises on the PM-in-waiting for his noble act of letting the roads ‘open’. One can only pray that this continues after he has taken the oath, for such stunts are not new to us. What is the guarantee that this too isn’t gimmickry like before?

One could also ask why things weren’t different with the PTI government in KPK until recently. The old-styled imperial ways and associated fanfare and protocols not only remained unshaken, but were also extended to Khan when he wasn’t even a govt functionary, let alone a governing figure. The proof of the pudding lies in the eating. Let Imran Khan set new precedents after forming his government in the centre. If he does, and lasts like that in his tenure as PM, only then can there be substance to his professed simplicity. For now, it is better to wait for that to actually happen.

Engr Tariq Malik

Rawalpindi