Punctured

We have seen many political sagas. But these appear to be becoming more and more absurd and show a rather unfortunate side of the state of our politics. The ‘35 punctures’ story much flouted by Imran Khan and his party after the 2013 general elections, with respected analyst Najam Sethi standing at the centre of this flood of allegations, held the country enthralled for months. Everyone sought answers, many questions were asked and inevitably many doubts cast on the role of Sethi who had been caretaker chief minister of Punjab during the election period. Now it has all turned into a sticky mess, exposing much about the PTI – and especially its chief Imran Khan. The party appears to be in no mood to create a new Pakistan. In a television interview Thursday Imran Khan rather blithely confessed he had no proof at all that Sethi had fixed 35 constituencies in Punjab as had been implied time and again by the PTI. Imran attributed his comments to Twitter conversations. Naturally, nothing was placed before the judicial commission.
Sethi’s reaction has quite naturally been furious and emotional. Talking about the puncture controversy, Sethi has asked how anyone could stoop so low and tarnish someone’s hard-earned reputation with so little to go on. It is unlikely the apology that has now come in from the PTI will sooth matters. But beyond the tussle between the two men, the real question is what this says about our politics and the direction it is taking. There are already rumours, mentioned also by Sethi, of a revolt within the PTI as people who joined it realise Imran Khan may not be quite what they had thought him to be. Certainly, his foray into big-time politics has badly damaged his standing. It now seems the party has presented very little before the judicial commission. This will not go unnoticed. The election rigging charges had been made the centre of our political stage for many months. Imran needs to explain why he chose to do so given the lack of concrete proof. If he fails, the damaging rumour we hear about the real purposes of the PTI will continue. And perhaps a more public apology to Najam Sethi is now due?