Pakistan - The credibility of Imran Khan

Imran Khan claims the moral high ground. What is more, he is never tired of flaunting his credentials as a great organiser. However, the very first intra-party election held under his supervision was rejected by the PTI workers for being rigged on a big scale. Party pressure forced Imran Khan to appoint a commission under Justice (retd) Wajihudin Ahmad, PTI’s presidential candidate in 2013, to look into the complaints. To Imran Khan’s surprise the commission concluded that the charges of massive rigging including purchasing of votes were genuine.

Imran Khan is constantly demanding the accountability of those responsible for stealing the 2013 General Elections. Afraid that the accountability of PTI leaders might be politically harmful, he tried to sweep the affair under the carpet by announcing fresh elections. This amounted to practising double standards. When the tribunal ordered the dissolution of all party offices prior to the elections, Imran Khan decided to get rid of the tribunal by arbitrarily dismissing it on the ground that it had brought bad name to the party. The tribunal however defied Imran Khan by continuing to record the statements of the PTI complainants.

The commission has now announced its ruling after fixing the responsibility of those involved in rigging. It has cancelled the basic membership of some of the PTI leaders, debarred others from holding any party office and issued show cause notice to still others and summoned them on June 29 for questioning. Instead of cooperating with the commission that he had himself constituted, Imran Khan maintains that its directives are not valid as he had already dissolved it. Some of the party leaders have used inappropriate language about the chief of the commission who was once described by the PTI as a man with impeccable honesty.

The PTI mismanaged the internal polls, then it tried to cover up those who stole the elections and finally let down its own judicial commission. All this makes Imran Khan’s claims of honesty and integrity sound hollow.