As people were still discussing the aftermath of May 9 of the last year and wondering why no major progress had taken place to convict the culprits, the PTI leader Imran Khan fired another salvo on May 26, an hour before the date change, creating a major stir in the cyberspace. The ripple effects of this cyber-attack are being felt both by the body politics of Pakistan as well as the besieged party itself. The recent most formation commanders’ meeting that again resolved to punish the culprits of May 9, have rightly declared the current spate as “digital terrorism”. While ending one of my last articles related to May 9, I had warned: If the state of Pakistan didn’t visit May 9, May 9 will visit the state of Pakistan. Sadly, I was proven right when what had happened on the ground on May 9 last year, was repeated on May 26 by the same party under Imran Khan.
It is not something new that the incarcerated and convicted Imran Khan has all of a sudden woken up from a long slumber to find out what happened in 1971. As the PM for four years, he did not talk about it, if it was so important to him. No major breakthrough in relations with Bangladesh took place under his tenure either.
The 1971 war has been documented through mountains of books, films and documentaries. The economic, political, historical, cultural, strategic, geo political and governance aspects have been thoroughly documented. Mr. Khan has no expertise in either area to guide us about the tragic war that dismembered Pakistan.
The operative part of the infamous tweet of Mr. Khan on May 26, has two aspects. One, he likens himself to Sheikh Mujib, the founder of Bangladesh and claims to have the same popularity and in the second aspect, he has likened the current army Chief with Gen Yahya Khan who imposed martial law in March 1969. The sleazy acts of Gen Yahya in the HamoodurRehman report have been widely publicized by the party of Mr. Khan without realizing that Gen Yahya looks more of a Mother Teresa compared to the kinky life of Mr. Khan, who himself has admitted to be a playboy. Many books, articles, audio, text, pictures, anecdotes and videos prove the same.
In his next tweets Imran Khan has highlighted the fact that after the fall of Dhaka and creation of Bangladesh, the army itself pushed Gen Yahya to resign. Here, Mr. Khan in a veiled manner is actually inciting the leadership and rank and file of the Pakistan defence forces to revolt against the current COAS Gen AsimMunir, something he and his party tried to do on May 9 last year on the ground across Pakistan.The contents of this cyber-attack against the armed forces of Pakistan are so serious that the besieged party leadership is unable to defend it. While a group of leaders starting with the current Chairman Barrister Gohar and Information Secretary RaoofHasan blame it on the overseas Social Media Team, declare it “overdo” and pledge to correct the course, other leaders including ZainQureshi admit that it was actually done on the explicit orders of Mr Khan, who himself remains mum and refuses to answer the queries of the FIA. Mr. Khan also projects a false narrative by likening himself with Sheikh Mujib both in terms of popularity and the fate. While Sheikh Mujib had a landslide majority in former East Pakistan, Mr. Khan rose to power on the coattails of the establishment through a heavily rigged election of 2018 and ruled as an autocrat for four years earning the title of the “predator of Press” by the RSF. Even after 2024 elections, his party is ruling the KP province with effective presence in the National Assembly, Senate and the Punjab. The party of Mr. Khan is not banned and is rightfully a stakeholder in the political system of Pakistan unlike what happened to Awami League of Sheikh Mujib. Unike Sheikh Mujib, Mr. Khan enjoys a seven room complex, legal, family and doctors’ visits, video link direct representation to the highest court of the country, a maid to serve him 24/7, newspapers, TV, chiller and a room cooler.
Regardless of what happened between March and December 1971 and while fixing the responsibility of the war, it is clear that no political party could accept six points of Sheikh Mujib as the basis for the new constitution of Pakistan. By creating separate currency, freezing forex reserves in one province, creating a separate military for the former East Pakistan and limiting the federal government to lonely foreign policy, it would have not created just one Bangladesh but at least five independent countries out of united Pakistan, as what was to be granted to East Pakistan could not be denied to other federating units. One can easily discern why Z.A. Bhutto who would have rather acted as the Leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, could not accept the six points as the basis of the new constitution to pave the way for five separate countries.
—The writer is former Federal Caretaker Minister for Information, Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs.
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