Daily Times

That one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter is simply boilerplate, but to see the same man be a despicable character in history and an inspiration to one person in one lifetime is a completely new, unheard-of phenomenon. Then again, it goes to the credit of former prime minister Imran Khan for teaching us the art of the unimaginable.

On Friday, Mr Khan expressed regret over his past references to Mr Mujeeb, which he had used to castigate a political ally Nawaz Sharif; admitting that he hadn’t read the Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report at that time. Although a leader of his stature should have known better than to launch blind missiles or use a national tragedy for petty point-scoring, but so deplorable has been the quality of political discourse in the last few years that perhaps, everything is kosher.

Nevertheless, today, as the entire top brass appears twisted in knots, wondering how to tread upon the precarious tightrope, Mr Khan, wishes to sustain himself as the true champion of democracy in the same breath as calling out the “real power holders.” A reasonable first step towards establishing a true democracy would involve talks with the representatives of the people sitting at an arm’s length from his second-in-command in the parliament.

For the last week or so, former president Dr Arif Alvi has been making headlines for remarks about the options available to the PTI, emphasising cryptic riddles and gardening metaphors to suggest making inroads in the estranged alleys. Some might call the entire exercise old wine in an old bottle as PTI has earned notoriety for blowing hot and cold in a desperate attempt to win grace marks with the state.

Whether the state machinery actually wishes to be involved in the matters of the political elite is a moot point because, in this parallel universe, their founder holds all the cards and the rest of the 241 million are only supposed to tag along. Of course, the naive would still advise the leaders of a party holding a crucial share of the legislature to think hard before repeating the same mistakes. Any and all issues they wish to highlight on the deliberations table could well be done with their colleagues, who have repeatedly extended olive branches. When it comes to Mr Khan, however, bitter experience trumps hope. *