Pakistan: PTI Protests, Again

What exactly does Mr Imran Khan want? People started asking this question when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) announced a protest rally to be held at D-chowk, Islamabad, on 11th May. After the rally, they are still searching for an answer. Ironically, the party which rallied large crowds across the country due to its appealing slogan of “change” appears unable to identify and adapt to changing circumstances. The last time the PTI held a rally at D-chowk, it didn’t have single seat in the Parliament. Now it has twenty seven, making it the third biggest party in the country. Then, it was a political outsider, an emerging third force, which was gearing up to challenge traditional political parties such as the PML-N and PPP. Now, it is leading the provincial government in the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). It made sense for Mr Khan to chant slogans and raise havoc when that was all he could possibly do. Following the same strategy now when he has both the power and the platform to introduce reform will not have the same effect, as there is much more expected of him. If anything, it will be viewed as an exercise to evade responsibilities concerning KPK’s governance. Elections are over. Change has come. It may not be the sort of change that the PTI was hoping for but that doesn’t negate the reality of the situation.

And the reality is this: the PTI has come to represent everything it claims to be fighting against. The party which talks about freedom of speech deems it perfectly adequate for its leader to bash and call for action against a media group without offering any credible evidence. Not just that, its supporters carried a coffin labelled “Ban GEO”. Why wouldn’t they do these things when they are made to believe that a “foreign-funded news channel” stole their mandate? In any case, it reveals much about the prevalent mindset. The party asserts that it respects national institutions. But, its workers wreak havoc as they accompany Mr Khan to the Lahore High Court (LHC). Mr Khan himself uses derogatory remarks against judicial officers, and demands resignation from members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The PTI insists on the importance of rule of law, but wishes to resolve issues on the streets instead of following legal procedures. If there are glitches in the system, they will have to be corrected from within. But, why bother with that when one can gather a big crowd and make demands, some of which cannot even be entertained by the government due to legal constraints. The list of contradictions is long and consistently growing. History is full of epic blunders committed by men who meant well. The party is advised to reconsider its approach before it’s too late.