Politics of egomania
BEFORE election 2018, Imran Khan presented himself as the panacea to all the problems of Pakistan.
He termed corruption as the mother of all-ailments in the society that results in numerous other issues that Pakistan has been facing.
In the name of Tabdeeli and Naya Pakistan, Khan promised a utopia and successfully attracted a large segment of society.
After coming into government, the situation was totally changed as he raised the expectations too high while there was no preparation as compared to the tall claims made by him and his team before the election.
Three and half years of his tenure were marred by mass unemployment, sky-rotting unemployment, unprecedented devaluation of rupee, poor governance, high utility bills that made the life of the masses miserable with each passing day.
During his tenure, Pakistan’s position on Transparency International’s Corruption Index constantly declined.
Against his own narrative, corruption cases against only opposition leaders saw very speedy proceedings, especially by NAB but Khan’s views about corruption allegations against own party members were totally different.
Khan promised economic boost in his tenure, creation of 10 million jobs but could do nothing like that and turned out to be the biggest disappointment not only for the public of Pakistan but also for his own party members.
Delayed decision regarding the IMF package left Pakistan with no option but to accept the strict conditions of the IMF.
Despite having a coalition government that requires consensus building and addressing the grievances of allies; Khan adopted a snobbish attitude both towards allied parties as well as against own party members, especially those complaining about inflation and governance issues.
Imran Khan simply ignored the most earnest concerns of every segment regarding the poor performance of Usman Buzdar in Punjab.
Instead of making any serious effort to improve governance, Mr.Khan just kept switching the ministries of his cabinet.
Bashir Memon’s allegations also exposed the duplicity of Imran Khan; advocating for independent institutions but totally opposite practically.
Khan came to power on the narrative of eradicating corruption, economic boost and exemplary governance but badly failed on all fronts.
Khan and his team levelled allegations against his political opponents but were void of acceptable evidence for the courts.
Despite spending billions on Assets Recovery Units (ARU), nothing substantial could be proved as per the allegations.
Had Mr.Khan been able to perform on the economic front, governance or proving his own government free of corruption, opposition would not have succeeded in ousting his government.
Instead of accepting his failures that resulted in ouster of his government as a result of unprecedented no-confidence motion, Khan started projecting a strange narrative of the US-backed conspiracy that too based on a routine diplomatic cipher.
Hiding his poor governance and other failures behind the so-called US backed conspiracy, Mr.Khan started insinuating towards state institutions as local abettors in his ouster.
Exploiting the existing anti-American sentiment of Pakistani society, Mr Khan started further widening the societal divide in the country.
Mr.Khan started questioning the neutrality of the state institutions, which certainly is an effort to pressurize them for going beyond constitutional domain and indulge in politics favouring PTI.
While all and sundry is appreciating the Establishment for its apolitical role, Mr.
Khan started using the allegory of “Mir Jaffar” to dilute the public mind against the leadership of state institutions.
Supporters of Imran Khan, people linked with state institutions and their families also started buying this narrative of PTI forgetting the real power of state institutions in Unity of Command.
Mr.Khan by dragging the security institutions into politics not only damaging the sanctity of the defence forces that are rendering countless sacrifices in the war against terrorism, but also trying to involve them in politics to divert their attention from security matters, hence serving the agenda of the enemy only.
Politics no doubt is all about enticing the public in one or the other way but polarisation in society on such narrative and diluting youth minds against State institutions cannot be accepted as politics.
Using heroic fame and religious quotes, Mr Khan is inciting youth against state institutions against all others in Pakistan whosoever doesn’t support him.
Rather than making sincere efforts to resolve the problems of the country, Mr Khan spent his tenure delivering morality lectures and religious sermons, befooling a lot in the name of the State of Medina.
Mr Khan knows very well that there is no US backed conspiracy against him but only a political move by opposition parties, yet his avarice for power leads his narrative without thinking about the serious consequences of such baseless narrative on the society.
This is indeed a true time of introspection not only for Mr Khan but for his zealous followers as well; can such a person be accepted as a leader to be followed blindly.
—The writer is an Islamabad-based research analyst and quasi columnist.
