The prime minister whips up expectations of a surprise every time he announces a jalsa or an address to the nation. Considering the circumstances, and the fact that he has effectively lost parliamentary majority ahead of Sunday’s no confidence vote, it is only natural for murmurs about a possible resignation to reach the headlines very quickly. However, once again Imran Khan has made it very clear that he is not going to resign and the future of his premiership will be decided in a couple of days. Yet he’s also developed something of a habit of going back on his word without the least bit of remorse, so it’s not unnatural for some people to expect him to do the same thing once again. Either way, it is not long before this particular question is answered once and for all.
Thursday night’s address to the nation was clearly meant to make sure that the spotlight remains fixed on the mysterious foreign plot to unseat him. But as the details of the threat, as PTI calls it, are trickling in, most people familiar with international relations and diplomacy are finding it a little hard to accept that any country would feel that it was Imran Khan’s, not Pakistan’s, decision to go to Russia, and that such a thing would make any power back and bankroll a no confidence motion in this country. Besides, the only thing agreed in the Russia trip was progress on deals already finalised when other people were Pakistani heads of state, not Imran Khan.
Other than this, there were no surprises in the speech. The PM said the same old things that he used to say during his long years in opposition, and then also during his premiership. There was nothing about how he planned to turn the game in his favour in the little time that remains, except threatening dissidents with shame and rejection that would echo across generations. He forgot, perhaps, that if such things drove the greater Pakistani political conscience, then his party wouldn’t have received a flood of seasoned politicians eager to hop aboard the Naya Pakistan bandwagon just before the last election.
All things considered, the speech did little to blunt the perception that, having run out of options, the ruling party is making noise that has no relevance whatsoever to the no confidence motion; which, after all, is a constitutional matter. *