Avoid pushing the envelope
Imran Khan says he has vowed to cleanse the national politics of corruption. Over the last five years he has conducted a campaign against corrupt politicians who include bigwigs of the PPP and PML-N including party chiefs Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif. He does not spare Leader of the Opposition Khursheed Shah, Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and finance minister Ishaq Dar. The PTI rank and file consider Imran Khan as the paragon of honesty. Imran Khan took Nawaz Sharif to task when the Panama case burst on the national scene. While Khwaja Asif claimed that the people will forget Panama case soon, Imran took to the streets to highlight the issue. He simultaneously filed a case against Nawaz Sharif in the Supreme Court which led to a split verdict and the formation of the JIT.
While Imran Khan claims a high moral ground one expects him to be seen as a law abiding citizen. Irrespective of whether one agrees with PTI dissident Akbar S. Babar’s contention, the PTI chief did not face the case filed in the Election Commission of Pakistan by his former colleague honestly. Khan resorted to delaying tactics that included seeking adjournments, challenging ECP’s jurisdiction, changes of counsel, and an appeal in Islamabad High Court. This led many to conclude that there was something fishy about the way the party raised funds abroad. The case filed on November 2014 remains undecided after more than two and half years.
Khan is now playing tricks with the SC. A PML-N leader has filed a case accusing Imran Khan and PTI’s Secretary General Jahangir Tareen of concealing assets and ‘offshore companies’ in their nomination papers that were filed with the Election Commission of Pakistan. Initially it was maintained by Khan’s counsel that neither the ECP nor the apex court have the mandate to hear the foreign funding case. At the next hearing the SC was told Imran Khan’s counsel had proceeded abroad on general adjournment. It would harm Imran Khan if he chose to treat the Supreme Court like the ECP.