The Khan raising the ante

And the need for more talks

If the government chooses to ignore PTI’s deadline for meeting its demands, November 30 is going to be its Waterloo. So says Imran Khan, who has threatened to hold a million-man dharna on the day.

The PTI chief is not known for restraint or mincing his words. Now, over three months perched on his container at D chowk Islamabad, spiced with mammoth public meetings mostly in Punjab, he has been spewing fire and brimstone at everyone who does not agree with his style of politics.

In the dubious company of erstwhile stalwarts of former dictator Pervez Musharraf the other day at Nankana Sahib, the Khan thunderously declared that his PTI will not remain peaceful after the November 30 rally. Sheikh Rashid Ahmed further raised the ante by giving a call to besiege, kill and burn to get rid of corrupt rulers.

An increasing sense of desperation is obviously pervading the PTI camp. Constantly being in an agitation mode is perhaps taking its toll on their already frayed nerves.

To be fair to the Khan, a miasma of flexibility can be discerned in his previously unbending stance. He is no longer insisting upon Sharif’s resignation as a sine qua non for negotiations. But, on the other hand, he wants the government to accept PTI’s five demands that, according to him, had already been agreed upon.

Of course there is an obvious disagreement on including military intelligence (MI) and the ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) for the high level judicial probe into rigging allegations in the May11, 2013 elections. The government says it did not make any such commitment while the PTI team headed by Shah Mehmood Qureshi insists that it did.

To be fair to the Khan, a miasma of flexibility can be discerned in his previously unbending stance. He is no longer insisting upon Sharif’s resignation as a sine qua non for negotiations

Whatever the veracity of these claims and counter-claims, any judicial probe that includes the military, or for that matter civilian intelligence agencies, will be a chimerical body, beyond the ambit of the constitution. And even if the government team, in a moment of weakness, had agreed to such a demand it is entirely up to the Supreme Court to summon whomsoever it deems fit in its wisdom.

Sharif in his last address to the nation had offered an olive branch to the PTI for talks and forming a Supreme Judicial Commission to probe election fraud. Nonetheless, the PTI wallas were not satisfied with its terms of reference. Perhaps partly owing to the Khan in one of his speeches declaring that such commissions had been proved useless in the past, and the apex court’s own reluctance, the fate of the proposed commission hangs in the air.

The process of negotiations between the government and the PTI had been going on in fits and starts over the past two months or so. At one stage the government, feeling the heat from the joint agitation of PTI and PAT, was forced to start negotiations. At the height of the pincer movement of IK and TUQ, a desperate Sharif had even given an SOS call to army chief General Raheel Sharif.

At the juncture both the leaders fishing in troubled waters were hopeful of the fabled ‘third empire’ intervening. Perhaps emboldened by an all time low in relations between the GHQ and the civilian leadership, they misread the military’s mood.

It is alleged that they perhaps had a pat on the back from some sections of the ubiquitous establishment. The now former ISI chief Lt Gen (r) Zaheer ul Islam’s spat with GEO television network was perhaps a source of encouragement for them.

What the duo failed to fathom is that the ISI chief simply cannot run his own policies independent of the COAS. And the military leadership, post Musharraf, has no stomach for overt interventions.

Sharif, who had been privatelycomplaining of meddling by the deep state, has since then somewhat mended his ways. Thereis a new ISI chief in place.The military and the civilian leadership, perhaps still not entirely on the same page, have a much better understanding of each other’s positions.

The wily Qadri was quicker than Imran to smell the shift in power politics. Hence, following the idiom: he who runs away, may live to fight another day, the PAT chief cut a deal with the government and called it quits.

Perhaps Sharif, blinded by arrogance of power, has forgotten the days when he was being tried in an anti terrorism court in Karachi on spurious hijacking charges by Musharraf

The Khan, on the other hand, true to his narcissistic nature and propensity of not engaging in any meaningful consultation with his advisors, has boxed himself in a corner. Nonetheless, like a wounded animal he has become more desperate and hence more dangerous. His threats of violence post November 30 should not be taken lightly.

Unfortunately, the government no longer feeling the heat has become somewhat complacent in its dealings with the PTI. Perfunctory statements by its ministers in response to the Khan’s fulminations are its only recipe to diffuse the crisis.

Its latest move to treat vandalising of PTV headquarters and storming the parliament by PTI and PAT supporters on August 30 and September 1 as acts of terror, smacks of short sightedness and political victimisation. An anti-terrorism court issuing warrants of arrest of Tahir ul Qadri, Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi is not only self-serving but also silly.

Perhaps Sharif, blinded by arrogance of power, has forgotten the days when he was being tried in an anti terrorism court in Karachi on spurious hijacking charges by Musharraf. The tendency of our politicians to use administrative means for purely political matters is unfortunate.

Of course Imran Khan cannot be absolved of the blame of concertedly weakening the democratic edifice through fair or foul means. He has ingested hatred and venom in the body politic without showing any light at the end of the tunnel. But this should give the government added impetus to show some sense of urgency in bringing its detractors on board through political means.

Unlike their natural instincts the Sharif showed remarkable restraint in dealing with the dharna. They should not blink when the Khan has almost reached the end of his tether.

The PML-N government has serious governance and transparency issues that have been laid bare by the Khan. They need to be urgently fixed.

On the political front, it should reopen serious negotiations with the PTI. Perhaps Nawaz Sharif should invite Imran Khan for direct talks now that he is not insisting for his scalp.