Daily Times

Reportedly, during the indictment hearing in the contempt case against him, Imran Khan threatened the four-member bench of ECP to slap Article 6 on them for not holding elections in ninety days when he returns to power and also questioned the authority of the members to frame charges against him. Pointing his finger at them, he loudly said, “I know you, I recognize you.”

He even hurled allegations of corruption against two members of the bench. By behaving the way he did, Imran Khan actually committed yet another offence of threatening the court, which can have serious repercussions in view of the fact that he is already facing contempt charges and is also involved in a host of cases related to corruption and 9th May incidents. By behaving the way he did, he has actually closed the doors for any sort of clemency for himself. Any sensible and right-minded person would have instead adopted a submissive attitude towards the court and pleaded his case on its merit.

This improvident behaviour on his part has not come as a surprise to the people who are savvy of his brand of politics and his persistent conduct of hurling insults against his political opponents and state institutions using filthy and foul language. His boorish, uncouth and ill-tempered demeanour has disappointed millions of people for whom he was a cricketing hero including me.

When Imran Khan became Prime Minister, he acted exactly the opposite of what he used to preach.

Looking at the track record of his intemperate conduct since he entered politics, particularly the period he was the Prime Minister of Pakistan as well as after his exit from that august office through constitutional means one really wonders if he ever studied at the most prestigious Oxford University. A graduate from that university is supposed to exhibit all the human courtesies and social manners in his interaction with other people. But it seems that the education at Oxford did not have any impact on his barren mind and incorrigible personality. His personality is quintessential of the saying of Saadi Sherazi who said that when it rained the fertile lands produced crops while the barren lands only grew grass and shrubs.

I am also personally witness to his nasty and ill-tempered behaviour with the members of the Pakistan cricket team. In a match against the Australian Prime Minister’s eleven in Canberra, a player signalled towards to pavilion for a runner as he was feeling uncomfortable due to backache. Imran Khan came out of the pavilion swore at him and asked him to carry on without a runner. I cannot quote the exact words that he uttered. I was standing outside the dressing room of the Pakistan team. I may tell the readers that I was posted at the Pakistan High Commission in Canberra at that time. Imran also had exchanged harsh words with a star batsman of the Pakistan team in the dressing room who came out in a furious mood and asked the manager of the team–who was standing outside the dressing room– to ask the captain to behave otherwise he would crack his head with a bat.

It may be recalled that Imran had also threatened a lady judge in Islamabad. During the sit-in at Islamabad, he openly hurled threats at the police officers saying that he would hang them with his own hands. Egged on by his aggressive narrative his supporters even thrashed a senior police officer who was on duty to maintain law and order. Unfortunately, the man is infected with delusional hubris. He is a narcissist of the first order who considers all the people inferior to him.

He never felt tired of eulogizing democracy and the rule of law by giving examples of Western democracies. But when he became Prime Minister he acted exactly opposite of what he used to preach. He hated the opposition parties and their leaders and never made any attempt to have a working relationship with them which is absolutely essential in a democratic dispensation. He undermined the prestige of the parliament by ruling the country through promulgation of ordinances. He practised politics of vendetta by initiating fake cases against the opposition leaders which were never proven in the courts of law and almost all of them were acquitted honourably for lack of incriminating evidence. The case against Rana Sanaullah presents a ranting testimony of his hatred for the opposition leaders, no wonder that high courts and even the SC while hearing cases against the opposition leaders repeatedly observed that NAB was being used for political engineering.

He did not even spare the judiciary. The reference against Qazi Faez Isa – who is now the Chief Justice of Pakistan – was an obvious case of his malice towards an honourable judge. However, when the judge and his wife successfully faced the reference and were exonerated of the charges levelled against him, Imran is on record as having admitted that the reference against Qazi Isa was a mistake. What more authentic proof of Imran’s misadventures against the judiciary can be than this fabricated reference against Qazi Isa? The foregoing facts explode the myth of his much-trumpeted love for democracy and the rule of law. The truth is that he was an elected dictator.

While he was doing all these silly things he never realized that times can change and change so quickly and that bad deeds never go unpunished. The situation that he finds himself in at the moment is a sequel to his own criminal indiscretions.

He is also the architect of the present political instability in the country and even from jail, he is trying to aggravate it further as is evident from the contents of his article that has appeared in the Economist. Bringing a bad name to the country through such machinations is surely an unpatriotic act.

The writer is a former diplomat and freelance columnist.