Pakistan: Afrasiab Khattak dubs PTI sit-ins a poll campaign

As the sit-in of Imran Khan enters its 40th day outside the Parliament House, Senator Afrasiab Khattak views the activity as nothing but a warm-up by PTI for election campaign.

In an interview with The Nation on Sunday, Senator Khattak said Imran Khan’s speech at his Karachi gathering unveiled the intentions of Khan arguing that PTI’s countrywide sit-ins were nothing but aggressive election campaigns.

“But ‘mobocracy’ cannot replace the genuine national consensus. The joint session of National Assembly and Senate that reposed confidence in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is much bigger national consensus than demonstrations of any political party,” said Senator Khattak who is known for his wisdom not inside his Awami National Party (ANP) but is also respected by other political forces for his in-depth knowledge.

Pakistan, he said, was a nuclear state where decisions should be made by state institutions and not by a political mob adding that Imran Khan, even if elected prime minister, would further isolate the country like he has detached himself from other political forces. “Just imagine the temperament of Imran Khan. He does not want to meet leaders of other political parties. He has run out of ideas. How can he head a country where he has to face opponents too,” the Senator wondered.

He said the stubbornness demonstrated by Imran Khan will result in his political death. “Just like football is the game of rules, politics has some rules too. You can’t conquer the whole nation with might,” he observed.

To a question, Khattak observed that the agitation unleashed by Imran Khan was not the issue of smaller provinces regretting that the sin-ins have further marginalized the issues of smaller provinces.

“Two million Pashtuns have got displaced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and we have totally ignored their plight as the country and Parliament are over-occupied with discussing the demonstrations of PTI,” he added. To a question how does he see the outcome of the prolonged sit-ins, Khattak argued that the political agitation of Imran Khan and Dr Qadri was not bigger than the movement launched by Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) in seventies. “This country suffered the movement of PNA for 11 years and Imran Khan wants to repeat this,” he said.

However, Senator Khattak equally sounded disappointment with the government’s response to tackle the marchers adding that the Parliament should not be used for interfering into the affairs of the executive.

Khattak, who had taken asylum in Afghanistan in 1980s, said that Afghanistan had emerged as a stable country adding that Pakistan being located in a strategically important place should not let mobs decide the future of the country. But he agreed with some demands of Imran Khan including election reforms, which, he said, should be achieved after taking all stakeholders on board. “This is no way to pressurize the entire mandate of people by hurling threats at Parliament from a shipping container,” the ANP leader said.

He said that many political parties would have agreed with what Imran demands but regretted that Khan did not spare time to consult any single parliamentarian except the non-elected Qadri.