Is it the U-turn the party actually needs?
Imran Khan has taken two years and a half to come out of the world of fantasy he had chosen to live in. The jolt administered by defeats in two major by-elections in Punjab has apparently played a major role in what looks like an awakening in case it does not turn out to be short-lived.
In a TV interview on Saturday Khan conceded that the family centered politics that he had opposed all along still persisted in KP where his party was ruling. He owned that top PTI leaders in the province had given party tickets to close relatives. He initially tried to justify the disregard for merit by maintaining that that happened in societies that lacked a system based on justice. Finding that this would convince few, he announced that henceforth only the party’s Central Board will take decisions regarding the award of party tickets.
Khan has finally realised that his assessment regarding the timing of the general elections was unrealistic and there is in fact no likelihood of their taking place before 2018. He has seemingly concluded that the secret assurances he had received from certain powerful quarters should not have been relied upon. The miscalculation led Khan to initiate a lengthy sit-in followed by calls for shutting down Karachi and Faisalabad. The agitation disturbed the entire country, weakened the system and caused economic losses. Imran Khan’s political blunders also isolated the PTI.
Imran Khan is now required to atone for his intransigence. To start with he has to change his style of politics. The rabble-rouser has to give place to a parliamentary leader. He has to respect important institutions like Parliament which he had rubbished as “fake” and abandon the recourse to invective against those differing with his politics. He has to learn to work with political parties which may not agree with him on many issues. It is time PTI assisted the parliamentary committee in the formulation of electoral reforms. Most of all Imran Khan has to display patience and self-restraint.
