The crowd goes wild when he makes an almost deity-like appearance. He gets the sympathy vote when he falls off his crane and the PTI realizes even gods can bleed. He is hailed as an intellectual by those impressed by his Oxford degree, a devout Muslim by those who think him a friend of the religious right. Pseudo liberals think him the perfect Muslim, accepting of Shias and Sunnis alike. Imran Khan Saab is said to be the embodiment of his political vision, the PTI.
But their manifesto doesn't read like an intellectually written document of brilliant vision. It does not approve of alternative judicial systems and yet it glorifies the panchayat system for one. It also “advocates tolerance, moderation and freedom to practice the religion of one’s choice”. The PTI leader does not sound like an intellectual when he publicly supports the second amendment and also goes on to state he is not looking for Ahamdi votes. Regarding Ahmadis who are a significant part of Pakistan’s population and a part of our history, Pakistani intellectuals often quote the famous Munir Report which Bhutto Saab ignored when he decided the embarrassingly shameful “Qaidiani Ordinance”. One has to wonder if Kaptaan Saab ever bothered to read the Munir Report (like every good Pakistani statesman should) before he made his potentially life-threatening-to-Ahmadis hate speech.
The Manifesto goes on to talk about “promoting a culture of tolerance and co operation amongst the political parties”. When has Khan Saab ever tolerated other political leaders apart from the religious right? Insulting everyone is simply crass! When Aitezaz Ahsan speaks, when Benazir Bhutto spoke, their intellectual credibility was never in question. One cannot make that same statement about Mr. Khan.
Whispers of his closeness to the military are not comforting either. When the vision is a politically democratic and modern Pakistan, the military should not be the deciding factor. Imran Khan claims his links to the "deep state" are all propaganda and for the sake of our nation I certainly do hope so.
He does like to play to emotional and religious sentiments resulting in myopia. Yes Mr. Khan, drones are bad, no Mr. Khan, terrorism will not stop when the US withdraws from Afghanistan. When you make a peace deal with the terrorists in Pakistan, they tend to take over large tracts of land from the state. Remember Swat people?
The president of the PTI Woman’s Wing or something to that effect told me he was a great supporter of the rights of women. If you ask Mr. Khan, he is not against affirmative action, he just believes that women from important families get into reserved seats and finds that unacceptable, which is why he wants to abolish such seats. Sir, I would like to politely point out, affirmative action is progressive regardless of the social class of the female in question. If you really want to change the reserved seats system, don’t do it by abolishing affirmative action do it by proposing amendments.
In the last five years, it seems the PML-N has made all the right moves and supported democracy. Without Nawaz Sharif, this parliament would never have completed its tenure. Once again, one cannot make the same claim for Kaptaan Saab. If he could address his own failings, he would genuinely be a leader worth voting for but at the moment I do not see him being able to deliver the Moon that he has promised to the people of Pakistan, let alone change any of his own conservative stances.
Source:
http://www.insaf.pk/docs/PTImanifesto.pdf
Source:
http://www.insaf.pk/docs/PTImanifesto.pdf
