‘He came, he saw, he conquered’. That’s exactly how Tehreek-i-Insaf supporters would like to portray Imran Khan after the massive rally at Minar-i-Pakistan last Sunday, the biggest ever since the late Benazir Bhutto’s homecoming in 1986.
Almost two decades after leading a relatively weak side to victory in the World Cup, he played his masterstroke in politics, sending shivers down the spine of the League leadership which tried to cheat the masses once again by launching a “Go-Zardari-go” campaign after having played the role of a friendly opposition over the past three-and-half years.
Like his detractors, Imran was also stunned by the size of the crowd and thus unable to articulate. Probably he couldn’t say the things he wanted to or should have said. He had no programme to offer to the masses but still he gave a sense of hope to men and women, young and old, who are fed up with the corrupt ruling elite. They are the ones who want the old faces in politics to just get out of their way; they want to liberate themselves from the shackles of the looters and plunderers.
And when it comes to their mistrust, they make no distinction between the PPP and the PML(N). They are disenchanted by both. Shahbaz Sharif might have thought that he could consolidate his party’s votebank in the Punjab by training his guns at President Zardari. But he must be grossly mistaken. The offensive diatribe launched by him at the Bhati Chowk just ahead of the PTI’s grand show of strength led to the further isolation of the League, now striving hard for its political survival.
The Party was left with no choice but to gradually distance itself from the CM’s rant with Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan making it clear that whatever the Chief Minister had said against the President was his personal view. And it was interesting to hear from him that Mian Shahbaz was just an ordinary party worker like him and the policy guidelines were set only by Mian Nawaz Sharif.
There is no doubt that the PML(N) has lately positioned itself as a challenger of the status quo after the PPP got itself aligned with the establishment. But when Rana Sanaullah points a finger of accusation at Imran Khan for playing second fiddle to the powers that be, he seems to forget how the party he himself represents had emerged on the political scene. Zia being their patron-saint, the Sharifs didn’t go through any hassle to enter the corridors of power.
Picked up as a counterweight to the PPP, they remained pliant to the establishment and never ruffled any feathers until Mian Nawaz was thrown out of power unceremoniously. But the lesson he might have learnt was to avoid taking the political confrontation to the point where those nursing Bonpartist tendencies could step in and send the democratic dispensation packing. This explains his policy of going one step forward and two steps backward with which the kid brother has not yet reconciled.
That he is eager to see the back of the Zardari government much ahead of the Senate elections scheduled for March needs no elaboration. Snap polls remains his dream. But he must also be aware of the odds stacked against his party. Anti-incumbency factor coupled with the emergence of Tehreek-i-Insaaf as a major political force are the fears which might have compelled him to tread his path cautiously.
Imran is still a long way from converting his public support into electoral victory. And it is only Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where he could expect to bag some seats and that too if he manages to rope in electable candidates. As far as Sindh and Balochistan are concerned, his party virtually doesn’t exist in these two provinces. But he can still give the Sharifs nightmares by playing the role of a spoiler and thus marginalizing the PML(N)’s majority in the Punjab to a tiny minority.
That said, the PTI Chief has yet to undergo many tests before he could rightly assess his support base. So far he has not taken any clear position on the Seraiki province or such other divisive issues elsewhere in the country. Then, of course, he will have to be mindful of the fact that his sympathetic approach towards the Taliban could deprive him of the fairly large chunk of the liberal supporters who were conspicuous by their presence at the Minar-i-Pakistan rally.
Last but not least our cricketer-turned-politician will have to be extra cautious about the blurring of lines between his backing by the establishment and his politics of idealism which he continued to pursue religiously over the past 15 years since the launching of Tehreek-i-Insaaf in the mid 1990s.
The writer is Executive Editor,
Pakistan Today.