Daily Times

The print and social media are currently being riled by a controversy concerning Imran Khan rushing to attend a London event meant to save the elephants and skipping the proposed All Parties Conference purported to save us from the terrorist onslaught and destruction. The Nawaz legions are lambasting him for his obsession with glitz and glamour and lack of devotion to the pressing national agenda. The Insaafians, known for their ‘tsunami’ on cyberspace are also — albeit rather apologetically — explaining that their ‘Thunder Khan’ had actually gone for check-up for his fractured bones, which being prearranged could not be postponed any further. The invitation to the grand gala was merely incidental as the organisers, somehow, would not like to miss the presence of a celebrity known all along for his ardour for such parties.

The idea evidently was to emphasise Khan’s global appeal and repute to enliven such celebrations. Yet some other rather virtuous and puritan souls were stunned by the scintillating outfits of the models present at the soiree splashed across the web, taken from the British press, particularly from its conservative segments like the Daily Mail, famous for their fawning on royalty and flaunting its feasts, festivals and frivolities. The gala commenced with a reception at Clarence House, the official residence of the heir to the throne, and was studded with the presence of Prince Charles, his wife Camilla Parker, the Duchess of Cornwall, and about 400 other guests including celebrities like Cara Delevingne, an actress and the current Burberry face, Jerry Hall — a former wife of the Rolling Stone Mick Jagger, also known for her acting stints in Batman and on stage — Mary Powery, Ruth Powery and Nancy Dell’olio.

The gala was meant to raise funds to protect the Asian elephant from extinction threatened by their shrinking habitat, hastened by expanding cultivation as well as by the poachers preying on their tusks, prized as fast selling white gold. As the promotion of the need to shield elephants and other species sharing their habitat being at the heart of the gathering, several participants including the Duke and the Duchess sported animal masks. The others stressed the significance of natural freedom, including the nudity of the wild vanishing species by wearing as little as possible, leading some reporters to comment that their skimpy outfits left almost nothing to the imagination. Prince Charles and Ms Parker, after the reception, are reported to have retired, leaving the others to proceed for a ball in another hall.

The report, however, is silent about what Khan, dressed in a tuxedo, did. Yet that in any way is insignificant, except for his critics and admirers electrified by his being a born again puritan Muslim who despite being so intricately immersed in the western ways and culture, divorced them in his determination to design a new Pakistan. And it pulsates with all the old obscurantist obsessions of piety, sectarian strife, subservience of females and minorities, aversion against other faiths and the quixotic delusions about our geostrategic potential to dictate our policies to the region and the advanced world.

Generally a normal mind embedded in western culture like Khan would be expected to have ingrained some of its enviable exemplars of realism and unbiased rational enquiry, which stipulated not merely its scientific and technological marvels but also the evolution of human thought to overcome the instincts of superiority of any race, religion, creed, colour and culture to embrace all-inclusive secular societies. He would have stood and struggled against all the maudlin mullah and militant mindsets that he so ardently advocates and protects. He should have realised that the determination and drive of his British hosts to conserve diversity in the animal world was not merely a vehicle to splash glitz and fashion or to amass donations but certainly a wider extension of their exquisitely admirable attribute to tolerate and promote diversity in human beliefs, behaviour and culture. They have long experienced and fought the rot and ravages of fascism based on race and religion. But Khan, unfortunately, condones, so nonchalantly, the fascism of fundamentalist fantasies that the terrorists have been trying to foist upon us through bombs, blasts, bullets, blood baths and brutalities. The reasons for his ignorance, indifference or even antagonism to such stellar western values that of course now are evidently cherished as the shared ideals and heritage of the entire humanity are perhaps too intricate to be assayed here. Apparently his immersion seems to have been merely skin deep, focusing on feasts, females, fashion and faster ball swings and cars, avoiding any intellectual acquisition and insights.

Therefore, Khan’s critics and fans need not be ruffled by the controversy about his attendance of the gala meant to save the endangered elephants. This would certainly spur him to skip its real spirit and secure the elephants of another kind that he has been already too desperately defending and raising in Pakistan. We actually lack the real kind of elephants and the vast dense forests that sustain them. Yet we have a far fiercer breed of the elephants of terrorism, ostentatious phantoms of piety, purity and religiosity, male dominance, discrimination against women and minorities, special unique superiority of our strategic location, sovereignty, ghairat (honour) and dignity. The havens and habitat of our elephants of terrorism in our northern terrains ironically also feel somewhat threatened by the drone raids. PTI’s thunderous fury, ferment, dharnas (sit-ins), and the mega march to shield these sanctuaries from the predators certainly stand as impressive milestones in this movement. The KP minister’s softer stance on terror threats and reluctance to condemn the murderous attacks in the province can be yet another expression of the same venture.

Imran Khan’s efforts to save the elephants of bias, bigotry and discrimination against minorities can similarly be judged by his party’s ambivalence against the sectarian slaughter of the Shias and other communities. The commotion among the Christian community against the policies and pronouncement of Pervez Khattak for their job categorisation is yet another characteristic part of this ‘crusade’. The elephants of gender bias and misogynism are also being protected almost in the same vein. Ignoring the presence of females in his election meetings, modelled after the American hustings and looking like community carnivals, which were dubbed as mere music concerts by his detractors, there is no female minister in the KP cabinet. Women in the PTI perhaps are meant to lend grace and glamour to its gatherings but their talent and expertise are not needed for its governance. Such manifest conservation crusades by Imran Khan thus show his courage and commitment to conserve and command the herds of these elephants to stem the surging tides of secularism, pluralism, human equality, rationality and realism that have been steadily sweeping almost the entire planet.

The writer is an academic and freelance columnist.habibpbu@yahoo.com