The contradictions between what Imran Khan has been saying for years and the type of turncoats he is welcoming into the party are glaringly visible and shocking. He has given a clean chit to a former foreign minister of Gen Musharraf, who during his tenure sang praises for every act of the dictator and became party to usurping the constitution. This dictator succumbed to one telephone call of a low key US official, ordered Lal Masjid massacre, Bugti killing, was responsible for missing Pakistanis, drone attacks and giving bases to NATO.
It was this gentleman whose family school business was given scores of acres of prime real estate belonging to Railways, to run the schools built on these premises and mint billions. Has this gentleman given subsidised education to the poor, although he has got land almost free from every government he has been part of? There is hardly any government of which the man has not been part of and of whom he did not sing praises while they were in power. Then there are sons of a former sardar who having served the dictator have now joined Imran and has become dry-cleaned.
These are habitual turncoats, men whose families served the colonial occupation for centuries and were rewarded suitably for pledging their loyalty to foreign occupation. Politics is not cricket where cricketers play the game in accordance with their skills irrespective of who the skipper is. Politics, on the other hand, can either be a business for opportunists and turncoats, or an avenue for ideologically committed people to serve the nation. This open house policy to welcome every electable feudal, land grabber and opportunist may harm Imran Khan’s credibility.
MIR TASSADAQ
Lahore