Daily Times

A failure to react in timely fashion and the wrong selection of priorities caused a bad reception for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan upon his arrival at the Army Public School (APS) Peshawar. The grief-stricken parents of the martyred children expressed massive resentment against him for not visiting them in their time of need. He came to the APS after almost one month of the deadly attack. For the last one and a half years, the PTI chief’s main priority has been a fair probe into the alleged rigging of the 2013 elections while he and his party leaders have been neglecting the serious issues of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). This skewed set of priorities has painted a bad perception of Imran in the eyes of the people of KP. Lately, his second marriage provoked further ire among the aggrieved parents, who termed him a callous leader busy in his own life and pursuing his own political agenda. They have declared his delayed visit to the APS political gimmickry. In the arena of politics, timing is everything and unfortunately, Imran has been ignoring this important factor of winning the trust of the citizens of KP. His apathy is what has caused him the latest embarrassment. He should have visited the families of the victims earlier. Even during the protest at the APS, he could have given them a patient hearing and tried to pacify them. But he avoided the protesters and his party termed them agents of rival political parties. While taking Imran and his bride to the APS from an alternate entrance, the police also misbehaved with the protesters. Even at the press conference, instead of focusing on his current visit, Imran Khan returned to his tired mantra of alleged election rigging. He also expressed his inability to understand the protests against him and declared that he was not responsible for the security of schools. He said that it was practically impossible to guard 65,000 schools in KP.

The latest developments show the political immaturity and indecisiveness of Imran. In the long run, this kind of attitude will deliver a bad blow to his image. Being the chairman of the ruling party in KP, he cannot shrug off the responsibility for any bad incident. Rather, he must work on positive lines and come up with solutions to all serious problems. He should urge the KP government to launch intelligence-led operations against the terrorists. It is now time for Imran Khan to expand his political horizons for a positive change. Instead of focusing on just one issue of a fair probe into alleged election rigging, he should take solid steps for permanent peace in KP and its development. The incident at the APS is a wake-up call for Imran that he should change his approach otherwise more bad receptions await him. *