Daily Times

The article I would have written this week was in short this: PDM should not try to overthrow the government of the day and that Imran Khan and his party should be allowed to complete its term. I would have repeated what I said last year about MaulanaFazlur Rahman and the prospect of him seizing control of the movement and becoming a compromise candidate for PM or President in the future. Nor is this article about Donald Trump’s histrionics in Washington DC where he incited his supporters to invade the citadel of the world’s oldest existing democracy. That would have been an excellent topic to write on, given that the entire world watches while the guardians of US’s democracy figure out what to do with an unhinged president who is a threat to the country i.e. whether to depose him through 25^th Amendment or to impeach him.

This article instead is about Imran Khan’s cruelty and lack of empathy. One cannot use any other word than cruelty because that is what it was. There is no precedent for what Imran Khan did this last week. For six days the families of 11 victims of Machh tragedy sat in temperatures of -6 degrees asking for sympathy from the Prime Minister of this country. They wanted Imran Khan to come and share with their grief and see himself how their loved ones had been brutally slaughtered, so that this genocide of Hazara community can end. In the past when he was in opposition, the great Khan was quick to call on the prime minister of the day to visit the scene of tragedy and to resign. His own advice now fell on his own deaf ears. Instead he declared that the families of the victims were blackmailing him. A hapless community that is continuously victimized and brutally killed for being visibly Shia (because they look different) is somehow blackmailing the Prime Minister of the nuclear armed Islamic Republic by asking the Prime Minister to share in their grief.

One has nothing against those suffering from mental ailments but the kind of responsibilities that the Prime Minister has to discharge require that he is focused and not caught up in wild fantasies

Insiders say that Imran Khan’s refusal to go had to do with the advice given to him by spiritual guru. Apparently seeing dead bodies will not bode well for his government the advice. If this narration is true, to hell with your spiritual guru and your government man. I hope this damnable government falls sooner or later. One’s dislike for MaulanaFazlur Rahman aside, PDM is the lesser evil between the two. As bad as Fazlur Rahman is, at least he is not an irrational fool who is driven by magical thinking. Magical thinking is a psychological ailment. Look it up. It fuels all sorts of irrational superstitions all of which Imran Khan deeply believes in. It has nothing to do with Islam. Islam does not encourage superstition. There are no taweez-gandas in Islam and no pirs and faqeers. This is sold as Sufism and spirituality or as the great Khan calls it “rahooniyat”. The urdu word that aptly fits Imran Khan’s conduct is “raoonat” i.e. conduct of the Pharaoh. In many ways Imran Khan is like the superstitious Pharaoh who wanted to kill off male Hebrew children on the basis of a prediction. In pursuit of that superstition, he made the prediction come true.

So this is the beginning of the end for this damnable government. It has written its own epitaph by the Hazara incident. The pyre shall burn. For now Imran Khan’s idiotic Social Media trolls have stuck to the narrative that those Hazara families are “blackmailing” the great Khan. It is not working though. Some of Imran Khan’s biggest supporters are abandoning him. This is the time for the more patriotic amongst his cohort to do their patriotic duty to abandon him. Like Donald Trump, he is unhinged entirely unfit to lead. He is not of sound mind and as such Article 63(1)(a) must come into play. Someone should petition the court seeking declaration that he is not of sound mind. Then he should be removed from power. No Prime Minister should be allowed to make decisions on the basis of superstition (magical thinking) and superstition itself is an indication of being unsound of mind. One has nothing against those suffering from mental ailments but the kind of responsibilities that the Prime Minister has to discharge require that he is focused and not caught up in wild fantasies. The Constitution requires this for all legislators. In Prime Minister is vested all executive authority. Imran Khan fulfills all the requirements of the narcissistic personality disorder, including the profound lack in empathy which he displayed in the week.Like Imran Khan, the “handsome” Narcissus in Greek mythology was so fixated on his own reflection that he died as a result. Meanwhile what can one say to those who still support him. Like him they too are narcissists who look at themselves through Imran Khan’s eyes.

It is better to be done with odious lot sooner rather than later. Pakistan made a mistake electing him 2018 and we have paid with our blood and tears. It is now time to boot out this government at all costs. So coming back to the article I wanted to write, I am glad I didn’t write it.