It took many people by surprise when a veteran cricketer and
ex-captain of Pakistan cricket team, Imran Khan formed a political party and
announced his entry into practical politics. In the beginning his discourse was
inclined towards the well being of the youth of the country, and the head of
the PTI- Imran Khan could be witnessed seeking support from religious quarters.
With the passage of time PTI diverted its attention towards the American drone
attacks into Pakistani territory. Imran khan had been an arch critic of
Pakistan’s foreign policy and accused Pakistani establishment for its tacit
support to the American drone strikes. As the general election of 2013 drew
nearer, PTI shifted its focus to social justice and anti corruption slogans in
Pakistan, and plunged into the field with the said discourse.
In the after math of the 2013 election, PTI came forth with the
allegations of rigging by the PML-N which had secured majority seats in the
election. The surprising part of the discourse of rigging was that the areas
wherein PTI had secured majority were declared free of rigging and the worst
kind of rigging was allegedly done in the constituencies wherein PTI had got
defeated.
PTI took to street politics and started a long sit-in the capital
against the results of the election. The
essence of PTI’s discourse throughout the dharna remained: Nawaz Sharif is the only rotten egg in the
state of Pakistan, and that the PTI will at no cast call off its dharna
unless it secures the resignation of the elected Prime Minister Nawaz Shairf.
But it was called off after 126 days without achieving any of its objectives.
PTI insisted on formation of a judicial inquiry commission to investigate into
the matter which will definitely expose the rigging, the commission was formed
to the utter satisfaction of PTI and all their misgivings were addressed. The
commission came up with its 237 pages report, conclusion of which reads:
“ The Commission is of the
view that the PTI was not entirely
unjustified in requesting the
establishment of a body to
inquire into its suspicions and
allegations regarding the 2013
general elections. However after the
recording of evidence and
carefully going through all the
material placed on record the
Commission finds as under in respect of each TOR.
·
Taking into account all the evidence
on record,
notwithstanding the shortcomings of
the ECP as mentioned
earlier in this Report, the 2013
general elections were in large
part organized and conducted fairly
and in accordance with
the law.
·
The plan or design to manipulate or
influence the election
has not been disclosed with any
degree of specification by any
of the parties to the proceedings
nor is it discernible from the
material placed before the
Commission. Allegations against
those allegedly involved in the
plan/design also remained
unsubstantiated by the evidence on record
·
When the entire context of the
elections are considered along
with the meaning of overall basis,
despite some lapses by the
ECP it cannot be said on the
evidence before the Commission that on an overall basis the elections were not
a true and fair reflection of the mandate given by the electorate.”
The essence of
PTI’s discourse remained that wherever PTI won, fair election has been
conducted, wherever it lost rigging had taken place.
PTI has been
manifesting itself as an upholder of legality and staunch believer in the
constitutional schemes of things, but in practice they work against their own
discourse. PTI had declared its lack of confidence in the members of election
commission of Pakistan and wanted them to resign from their posts. In order to
achieve its objectives, they again took to streets, whereas redress of the same
issue has already been enunciated in the constitution article 209. PTI was never
witnessed making effort to make use of the constitutional provision.
PTI exhorted
people for tax revolt, and wanted them not to pay tax to the government which
was not legitimate in its view. PTI went a step further and exhorted people not
to pay utility bills, and use the illegal Hundi system for cross border
foreign exchange transactions.
Pakistan
like the other developing countries has been subject to threats of militarydictatorships. People with democratic spirit are always out to ensure the
continuity of democracy in the country and thwart any such bid which results
into subverting of the will of the public. But PTI has its own discourse different
form the rest of political entities. PTI has no problem with army entering into
the terrains of politics if the army topples the PML-N led government. During
its dharna one way or the other attempts were made to exhort the military to
take reigns of the government and oust the elected prime minister. Frequently threatening
the government with raising the umpire’s fingers, attacking every
institution that symbolized civilian authority: parliament house, PTV centres
etc.
Much to
the chagrin of the literate and
democracy loving class of the world, came the statement of Imran Khan on the Turkish turmoil. Military
in the developing countries has been toppling civilian governments and installs
dictatorship by force. But it was probably for the first time in the history of
developing countries that the public came out in support of civvies against the
military takeover in Turkey. The masses made unprecedented sacrifices of lives
to safeguard their elected government against the military. Reaction of the
Turkish people was widely commended by the people all around the world and
tribute was paid to the spirit and sacrifices of the Turkish people. It were
indeed a triumph of public will and a discouragement of any such bid which
replaces public choice with force in ruling them. Even at this hour of crisis Imran came
up with a statement which even does not behove a lower level political worker,
let alone head of a political party which deems itself fit for ruling the
country. Mr.Imran said, “if military takes over government in Pakistan people
will distribute sweets”, the same statement was dully endorsed and publicly
paraphrased by one of the members of his coterie Sheikh Rasheed.
Mr.Imran
defended his statement on the ground that people were not contented with the
PML-N led government in Pakistan, and the government was terribly failed to
deliver, and people had therefore grown discontented with it and ready to
welcome dictatorship. He maintained that the Turkish president Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan had
delivered well and it were due his popularity and public oriented policies that
the people supported him against the military. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is
widely known for his high-handedness in chalking out public policies. He is an
ambitious political figure who is believed to have been harboring the idea of
replacing the current quasi parliamentary political system with the
presidential one. Fathullah Golan, the man who is believed to have been behind the present plot in Turkey, was
once the a close aides of the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ,but
later due to differences on policy matters they parted their ways. Keeping in
view all these factors Turkish public reaction cannot simply be termed as a
manifestation of people’s love for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rather
their love for democracy. Imran’s stance therefore holds no water.
PTI has
been trying to take credit of democratic practices in his party- PTI, like intra
party election, freedom of expression
and the right to question decisions of party members. But Mr.Imran khan in his
recent speech to the disgruntled workers of his party said.” You have to accept
the decision otherwise you have to two options with you: either to join other
party or form your own party.” This
statement speaks volumes of democratic spirit of PTI.
The
essence of PTI’s discourse can be summed up in the following words. Whatever
PTI says and does is legal, just and fair, people minus PTI even if do a right
thing but is against the will of PTI, is illegal and unfair. PTI is born to
rule the country and has been blessed with honest, fair and capable leadership.
If any single person on Pakistani soil deserves to be prime minister, he is
head of the PTI.
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