Daily Times

After over two decades in politics Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)Chief Imran Khan’s personality and politics both seem increasingly unpredictable, vacillating between controversies and contradictions. Today it is not clear whether he is a charismatic leader or a celebrity — though that is not to say that a celebrity cannot become a charismatic leader if the required characteristics are imbibed.Celebrity status is the outcome of extraordinary performance in a specific field, such as sports, showbiz or science. It goes on to manufacture a cult of fans who are unquestionable devotees, unwillingly to discern between the celebrity’s public and private lives.

A celebrity has fans while a charismatic leader has followers. Fans are only concerned about performance or physical features; but for followers a cause, ideology or way of life are what compels them to follow someone.

Many celebrities have been pushed into new roles because of their status, but most simply fade away. Most celebrities who catapulted themselves into politics to reach parliament failed to reach their goals because their new role was transposed as a reward for their previous one. Thus, Imran can be called a charismatic player, but not a charismatic political leader.

A scrutiny of Imran’s political rhetoric, twists and turns reveals he could be a promising candidate from the platform of an established political party, but not a leader who could usher political change. Many commentators hypothesise the problem lies in his ego and personal aggrandisement, forcing him to top up his celebrity with the coveted Prime Minister’s (PM) office.

The forthcoming elections will prove this hypothesis whether he maintains interest in politics or not, particularly if he does not become the PM or after spending five years in power.

Every step Imran has taken has been contradicted by the next. Before 1996, he was vociferously critical of politics, calling it a dirty game and proclaimed that he would never become part of it. Soon after, he decided to clean the Augean stables and established a political party.

In his maiden 1997 election Imran rode on the euphoria of the 1992 World Cup victory, but he was not able to translate his celebrity status into a seat in the National Assembly, and lost all seats. By 2002, he had realised that without kowtowing the establishment he would never enter the corridors of power. Consequently, Imran picked up the same thread that had been abandoned by Nawaz Sharif earlier.

Imran supported Musharraf by actively participating in a sham referendum to confer legitimacy by propelling him to the presidency. Later, Musharraf revealed in an interview that he was not willing to concede more than 30 seats to him. However, Imran’s aspirations stretched to Prime Ministership. Imran managed to grab a single seat from Mianwali, but as implied by Musharraf, not without the blessing of the powers that be.

The period between 2002 and 2011 was very disappointing for Imran Khan.He was miffed by the security establishment for not considering him on par with Mir Zafarullah Jamali and Shaukat Aziz as a potential PM. Later, he became part of the All Parties Democratic Alliance (APDM) to preserve his political relevance. Till October 2011, his media worth was limited to the city pages of national newspapers, and that too if pushed by a sympathiser in a newsroom.

After the signing of the Charter of Democracy and subsequent reconciliation with major political parties, the 18th Amendment and collapse of the PML-Q, the security establishment had no option but to adopt PTI as a surrogate to the Q-League. At the time, no other party was willing, at least publically, to play on the establishment’s pitch and Imran realised that without Rawalpindi’s support, he could never reach the PM house. This is why his slogans of change are empty.

How is a welfare state possible in the presence of a security state, which Imran protects to gain power? His claims of change through welfare and development were badly exposed by the PTI’s five years of governance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Since the colonial era, no government has left the province in such bad shape as the PTI has.

Instead of turning KP into a model province, in the initial four years Imran used its potential and resources to dislocate the federal government as a short cut to power. When that failed, the provincial government had nothing tangible to present to its voters and came up with haphazardly planned projects as material for the upcoming elections

The PTI government borrowed Rs 270 billion in five years, compared to the Awami National Party’s Rs 20 billion. It failed to initiate any mega project in the province in its initial four years, apart from the billion tree tsunami which went on to become a mega scandal. In its last year, the PTI kicked off two mega projects;  the Mardan to Chakdara Expressway and the Rapid Bus Transit (RBT) in Peshawar. Both have been left in limbo, particularly the RBT forcing experts to call them classic examples of poor designing and mismanagement.

Instead of turning KP into a model province, in the initial four years Imran used its potential and resources to dislocate the federal government as a short cut to power through the establishment door. When that failed, the provincial government had nothing tangible to present to its voters and came up with haphazardly planned projects as material for the upcoming elections. But that backfired.

Imran mostly thrived on reforms in education, health and the police department. Yet, here too the boot was on the other leg. What he called reforms in education and health departments were mostly administrative procedures, specifically referred to as monitoring. Without providing the hardware required for improving facilities, attention was given to strict measures to ensure attendance of teachers and doctors. Without any incentives and facilities, such strict policing measures further created a perverse impact in the cadres of departments. As far as the police department is concerned, the PTI government only talked about the police’s behaviour and never provided details of resources for modernisation.

As for the police’s attitude and behaviour; which Imran refers to as the “de-politicisation” of the police, it is not an outcome of any reforms but flows from the local norms of an egalitarian society. Anyone who knows about the culture of KP and the police’s history in the region since the colonial era can verify that the erstwhile Frontier and now KP police were more of a deterrent than the Punjab and Sindh police.

A significant indictment against Imran is the introduction of the politics of sexualisation, focusing on gender specific constituency. He has claimed on numerous occasions that women are his biggest constituency. But it has been more of an exploitative nature than submitting to their positive role.

Imran’s current image as a harbinger of change is as hollow as his claims of improvement in KP. And it will continue to beguile many through the aura created by the tamed media on behalf of the powers that be.History will remember Imran as a stooge of status quo forces, creating hurdles in the way of the democratic project.

The writer is a political analyst hailing from Swat. Tweets @MirSwat

Published in Daily Times, June 14^th 2018.