Time for Imran to congratulate Nawaz

The “Umpire” has raised his index finger, but this time towards Imran Khan. The three umpires were not of Nawaz Sharif’s choice, as Imran had often accused him of playing with his own umpires.
Perhaps, the “umpire” who had given some kind of assurance to Imran and the PTI before the dharna has finally ditched him. This is the biggest lesson for Imran and his party that they should neither rely on such people nor accuse anyone without evidence, which are not sustainable in a court of law. The tsunami, which was supposed to hit the PM House and Parliament, has finally hit Bani Gala — the residence of Imran khan.
Should the captain resign as the party chairman and go for new party elections? It is certainly time for the PTI high command to review its two-year politics.The Judicial Commission, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Nasirul Mulk, has submitted an over 200-page report and some of the excerpts leaked to the media revealed that the commission had rejected all the three main allegations of the PTI, meaning the elections were free and fair, there was no organised rigging and that people’s mandate was not stolen.
However, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should not have addressed the nation for political point scoring.It’s a bid overreaction from the government side, though the PML-N has every right to celebrate. It’s like victory in re-election, as it has now given them complete legitimacy till 2018.
Although, there may be something for the PTI to cheer up, may be in number of recommendations and suggestions, Imran could rightly take the credit that at least he took a democratic path to raise his apprehensions about 2013 elections and brought up many irregularities.But, the captain, who once was the master of reading the wicket, badly misread the wicket and become a victim of bad advices.
So, what he should do before facing his own party leadership? Since he had created so much political and media hype, the biggest political setback of his career demands that he should at least offer the party his resignation.
1) He should accept the election results of 2013, 2) visit Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and congratulate him as prime minister, 3) apologize to Parliament whom he had called a product of rigged elections, (4) should apologies to former Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry, former caretaker Punjab chief minister Najam Sethi, the Election Commission and Returning Officers whom he had accused of organised rigging, (5) should say sorry to Geo, as scores of its reporters, camerapersons and management faced a lot of problems because of his container speeches.
It is also time for “self assessment” for a man, who entered politics some 20 years back and emerged as the main opposition leader in 2013 elections. Where he went wrong? What should he and his party do now?
Political setbacks are part of democracy and parties; leaders could learn from their mistakes. A few days back I had written that the Judicial Commission report may be disappointing for Imran and his party.
The following are the mistakes, which Imran had committed in the last two years and during his 126-day dharna.
(1) Imran had questioned the elections in which his own party got the highest number of seats compared to 2002 elections, as he had boycotted the 2008 elections.
The PTI formed the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, became the main opposition party by wiping out the PPP in the Punjab and from one NA-seat has now 36 in NA and four in Sindh.
So, how can he call these elections as rigged where his own party had performed so well and he himself had only questioned four constituencies.
(2) He went into the field without any homework, created hype for rigging without enough evidence and accused people and institutions like in the case of 35 puncture, but had no documented proof to defend his claim.
(3) His decision to take the solo flight in his campaign and in the process completely isolated himself to an extent that even his closet ally Jamaat-e-Islami did not join him in the protest.
(4) His decision to ignore the “warning” from veteran party President Javed Hashmi that he may fall in a trap.
(5) His dependence on the advice of some “non-civilian” people in the establishment, who wanted to settle personal scores with Nawaz Sharif.
(6) His decision not to ask the KP government to quit, which created contradiction in his stance.
(7) His failure to understand the Army Chief General Raheel Sharif’s advice not to press on the PM’s resignation.
(8) He took too long to withdraw from the demand of the PM’s resignation.
Imran further damaged himself when he started withdrawing his demands one by one except the formation of the Judicial Commission.
(1) He withdrew from the demand of the PM’s resignation.
(2) He withdraw from the accusation of 35 punctures against Najam Sethi
(3) He participated in the Senate elections.
(4) He accepted the present Election Commission of Pakistan.
(5) He withdrew from the earlier claim of calling former Chief Justice of Pakistan in the witness box.
Thus, too many “U-turns” in politics often raise questions about credibility and capacity of a politician. So, Imran can learn a lot of lessons from his political setback. All is not lost. He just has to reorganize himself and his party. He should first raise the morale of his workers.
Secondly, Imran and PTI legislatures should now concentrate on electoral reforms in the light of the JC’s recommendations, exploit government’s failures, go for party polls as recommended by his own election tribunal and launch a campaign for local bodies’ elections in the Punjab and Sindh.
One last advice to Imran would be..... please.... don’t jump to conclusion before looking at evidence and above all look towards people’s “finger” and not wait for any “umpire.”
So, like any graceful politician, Imran should congratulate Nawaz as he had stated that he would accept the JC report and if it came against him he would personally shake hands with Nawaz and congratulate him.
There should not be any U-turn on this point, Mr. Imran!
The writer is the senior columnist and analyst of Geo, The News and Jang.