Daily Times

The former PM recently defended Farah Gogi or Farah Shazadi so passionately that by doing so he set a new record for defending someone to date. Call her Princess to save space. He declared her innocent of any wrongdoing and that she was a family friend involved in the real estate business. And if she made hundreds of millions during the PTI rule, others in the same business did too because of the boom in this line of business. The only problem is that Farah shouldn’t have slipped out of the country as soon as the PTI government fell. Had she stayed back, IK wouldn’t have had to defend her. Neither would she have attracted so much public attention.

Imran Khan’s entire campaign before the elections and after becoming the prime minister was prominently based on a single agenda – corruption. He gripped the whip of corruption tightly and lashed his opponents to his heart’s content. The issue of corruption or ‘living beyond means’ is a convenient stigma to haul up the political opponents through the dubious accountability departments set up for the purpose. In his utter arrogance, Khan couldn’t realise that the tables could turn someday and he could be on the receiving end. His fervent defence of Lady Farah is only the beginning of what all is most likely to emerge and sooner than later.

The poor have no interest in knowing about the alleged US conspiracy or fleeing abroad of Princess Farah.

Troubles, as they say, come in droves for a political party when it loses power. Especially, when overpowering streaks of arrogance, revenge and vindictiveness are in his DNA. Only a few weeks have passed since the coalition government took power, but one hasn’t heard any of the leading men in the government use foul language against their political opponents. Khan singularly holds the honour of name-calling his opponents. Perhaps, now is the payback time.

In an interview IK gave, he pre-empted what he called a “smear campaign” against him. He claimed that his opponents were hiring companies to prepare material for his character assassination. He said he had to deal with “mafias” that looted the country for the last many decades. If we agree with his argument that the political mafias looted the country, there’s all the more reason for him to come out clean as a whistle to prove to the nation what an honest and true fighter against corruption looks like.

Many crises suddenly popped up. The “letter-gate conspiracy” that IK and cohorts still claim is the prime cause of the PTI removal from power, for instance. The superpower conspiring to deprive IK of power was a serious issue. The National Security Committee met under the chairmanship of the PM Shahbaz Sharif and was attended by top brass who considered the conspiracy theory nothing more than a mere lie. PTI is not satisfied by the decision of the NSC and demands a judicial commission to look into the so-called conspiracy.

When the news of Lady Farah and conspiracy against the IK government’s removal from power floated, the Punjab Governor called for the army’s help to settle the political crisis in Punjab. The Gov believes that Hamza Shahbaz is not the genuinely elected chief minister of the province. Gov is convinced that “a Subedar with four soldiers” could easily arrest Hamza Sharif and settle the problem. The Governor has asked the army chief to intervene in the matter. On the other hand, many PTI walas believe the establishment is also responsible for depriving their government of power besides the international conspiracy.

The events mentioned above are high-profile in nature and completely divorced from the well-being of the poor living below the poverty line. The poor have no interest in knowing about the alleged US conspiracy or fleeing abroad of Princess Farah. Nor do they want to know where the handsome anti-corruption guru, Shahzad Akbar, has disappeared. But he had a perfect sense of time and knew well that good times didn’t last long.

Who knows Princess Farah may suddenly appear on the scene and say, “Fellows, you have no patience. I was out on a short vacation and you began to fabricate stories about my wealth.

How laughable that some in the present government considered bringing me back with the help of the Interpol. Here I am and here’s my wealth statement.

You will realise that every penny is hard-earned.

Eat your hearts out.” It will leave the naysayers, including this writer and dear friend Zahid Salam agape.

The writer is a Lahore-based columnist and can be reached at pinecity @gmail.com