Imran Khan and lessons to be learnt
Former prime minister Imran Khan once blue eyed boy of establishment and the darling of the social media, is also renowned as a master of U Turns. Throughout his political life he has taken u turns one after the other and has publicly acknowledged that taking u turns is the sign of a good public leader. He may be a good acrobat taking U turns but unfortunately Mr. Khan never learnt the very vital skill of learning from his mistakes or the essential quality of introspection in order to avoid blunders that brought him to this sorry end. Imran Khan’s political party is now unravelling at an astonishing speed and very soon will end up on the dust heap of history.
The biggest reason for this sorry state of affairs is that the Khan of the PTI never bothered to take a step back think analyze think again and make the necessary changes in his attitude and policies. Whatever he said was swallowed hook line and sinker by his fanatic followers.
He showered his devotees with hate speech against the army going to the extent of labelling them traitors and anti-state elements. He brainwashed his followers into believing that all the political leaders in the country were corrupt, looters and thieves and only he was honest and patriotic. His toxic speech created an atmosphere of enmity and hostility against all the political forces of the country. His vitriolic attacks against his opponents included some very serious accusations, personal remarks, body shaming and even attacking the families to the great amusement and joy of his followers.
His fanatic followers always applauded and praised him for his sexist, misogynist and vulgar remarks about his opponents. He created nick names for all political leaders and took great pride and joy in name calling and showering accusations of corruption and wrong doing without a shred of proof against any one.
The media trial of his rivals was conducted by his fans in the media and the Imran tigers of the social media like Adil Raja, Haider Mehdi and Wajahat Saeed Khan sitting in foreign countries released a barrage of hate and vilification against the army high command specifically against the army chief and the DG ISI. His followers did not have the courage to question his claims without any proof and continued to applaud him and be entertained by his joker like antics. The huge army of Imran Khan Lovers continued to defend and project all his U turns and contradictory statements and made him a champion of the social media. The age of Imran khan is an era that saw the highest levels of polarization in the country. Never before in history has so much hatred been seen against the armed forces, friction was created within families and relationships were irreparably damaged by the hate campaign created by Imran Khan. Anybody who dared to question or contradict Mr. Khan was severely trolled and threatened by the army of Imran Khan Media tigers. Some media houses and TV anchors appeared to have taken an oath of loyalty to Imran Khan and became more loyal to the throne than the king himself by parroting his dangerous and toxic narrative day and night. Some media personalities in Pakistan and specially those abroad made a fortune out of the Imran media campaign and became hugely popular. For quite a while Imran Khan rode the crest of the popularity wave on the electronic and the social media. His followers in the media made extensive use of fake news and again the PTI followers believed every word dished out without checking or verifying the accuracy of the material presented for their eyes. Reason and logic went out of the window and the cult of Imran Khan thrived on these false stories.
Some of the leading crusaders and foot soldiers in the Imran Khan army were the overseas Pakistanis and social media stalwarts sitting safely in foreign countries who continued to fire their salvos of fire and brimstone to malign all Imran opponents, voices of sanity in the media and of course the military establishment. Divisions were created in the Judiciary and the term Imrandar was coined for judges in favor of Imran Khan. Serious attempts were made to create a rift in the army high command and to force the army to help the PTI to get back into power. Imran Khan grew larger than life and his over inflated ego and over confidence made him commit one mistake after another blunder but not once did he pause and ponder on his reckless actions that brought him to this sorry state of affairs.
May 9th 2023 dawned as the waterloo or the 9/11 for Imran Khan and his PTI. Military installations and monuments were attacked and vandalized by the Imran Khan tigers who had been trained and nurtured on a steady diet of hate against the army.
The establishment hit back with everything they have got and the result is a total melt down of a political party that had enjoyed dizzying heights of popularity. If Imran Khan wants to salvage his party and his political career he will think not twice but many times before committing any such blunders in the future.
—The writer is Professor of History, based in Islamabad.
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