Imran Khan has been in politics for a while now, probably for over a decade and a half. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is primarily constructed around his person and is backed up by the reputation of his being the captain of Pakistan’s cricket team winning the World Cup. Several cricket supporters were surprised at his acceptance speech when he said, “I have won the World Cup…” without acknowledging that it was a team effort. He was the captain, and captain contributes a lot no doubt. It would have been in good grace if he had acknowledged the efforts of the team that he was the captain of. In no case the credit of his contribution could be taken away from him. His second achievement is the establishment of a cancer hospital in the name of his late mother. It is a personal achievement through fundraising after the World Cup success. The hospital enjoys a good reputation and it is professionally managed.
When Imran entered politics, his image was high. He thought he will conquer all, but politics is different from cricket, or even from a hospital. His hospital runs on the contribution of philanthropists and service charges, and cricket needs individual skills. He was offered a share in governance by Musharraf, but negotiations failed due to Imran’s overestimation of his strength. He lost valuable opportunity of sharing power and gaining experience. Imran soon appeared lost in politics; people equated him with the style of Asghar Khan and late Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan. Both of these leaders never obtained ‘power’, the known pursuit of politics.
Imran Khan appeared to be going through introspection. He was trying to fight against his reputation of being a playboy and his involvement in overseas scandals. Even his marriage with a British heiress was seen with suspicion. He needed to neutralise the critics of the extreme Right. He met the leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami and many other groups of the Right and even extreme Right. He started to wear shalwar kameez on a regular basis. His marriage finally ended. All this convinced the Right and so-called religious groups. Since then he has had increased support from the ‘right’ political groups and seems determined to hold on to it.
Imran has also worked hard on the non-conventional politicians and the youth. Both of these segments are attracted by his debonair look and fresh approach. He is indeed more educated than most of our politicians. He stands out as an upright person among the of ‘jaali (fake) degree’ type parliamentarians. His personality is an asset for him.
His political stance needs a careful and serious analysis. The main point of concern is that he has never taken a clear stand against the activities of the Taliban. Instead, he has been pleading for a ‘negotiated’ settlement, knowing full well that all negotiations and ‘peace’ agreements have been used by the Taliban for the purpose of consolidating and then continuing terror activity. He should have offered to negotiate himself if he was confident of this course of action. The failure of the infamous Swat agreements must still be fresh in the public memory. Imran has never supported the army action. This includes army action in Swat and in South Waziristan. He has not even condemned the attacks on army General Headquarters (GHQ) and, more recently, the attack on the Pakistan Navy Station (PNS) Mehran base.
On the other hand, he is prominent in demanding the blocking of supplies to NATO forces through Pakistan — a step which would help the Taliban. He is against drone attacks. It is true that the drones cause regrettable collateral damage but they also target the al Qaeda and its supporters. The Taliban also demand an end to drones. Imran is prominently part of anti-US campaigns. True that many American policies have been self-serving, but then it is our responsibility to protect Pakistan’s interests against any foreign country, not just the US. Just being against the US and the war on terror is again an indirect help to the Taliban. Most significantly, his calling the war on terror as an American war is the standard Taliban slogan. Over 30,000 Pakistanis have been killed due to the Taliban’s terror attacks. Is it still not our war?
Looking at these factors, one is forced to question: what side is Imran on?
He is agitating in Karachi against the supplies to NATO forces, and the drone attacks. He was active with the extreme Right in protesting against Raymond Davis’ release. He has been doing sit-in protests in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In fact, the PTI has been doing so many protests that it may be aptly called Tehreek-e-Ehtijaj. Imran’s group seems to be joining every protest and playing to the gallery.
This strategy has also given certain advantages to Imran Khan. Consistent ‘exposure’ is one of these. Perhaps more significant is the fact that he has won over a sizeable portion of the supporters of Nawaz Sharif. This support primarily comes from the Taliban or their sympathisers. So Imran Khan is obliged to toe their line. As a politician he realised that the white collar will not win him an election but the rightists may. They get together, provide street power as well as loud noises, and this works to collect crowds. Imran is the preferred choice of extreme Right also because of his energetic style, which is more convincing than that of Nawaz Sharif; his eloquence is impressive against Nawaz Sharif’s limited capability, and indeed Imran is a ‘fresh’ image as compared to the repeatedly tried image of Nawaz Sharif. He may find it very hard to risk alienating himself from this segment. He also likes to have them because it is quieting down the critics of his flamboyance and flirtations of youth.
Soon there will be the final stage when Imran may need to do some soul searching once again, and decide if he is going to flow with the tide of extremist groups or stand on his own and refuse to be their cover politician.
The writer is a culture and media management specialist, a researcher, author, director and actor