And what lies ahead for him
Imran Khan has finally concluded that neither his personal charisma nor party programme are going to play a crucial role in winning the elections. Like the PMLN and Zardari’s PPP, he too has decided to depend upon electables to win the elections. On Friday, he told PTI workers protesting outside Banigala that tickets will be awarded only to those who know the science of contesting the elections. This indicated a recognition of inability to raise a political wave like the one by ZA Bhutto before 1970 elections which enabled the commoners with scant resources, but holding PPP ticket, to trounce feudal lords, dynastic heads and spiritual leaders in Punjab.
If Imran Khan wins the elections with the help of the unscrupulous lot he has gathered around himself, he would be making a bargain like the one by Faustus with Lucifer for the sake of power. Being totally dependent on the electables’ support to continue to rule, Imran Khan will have to reconcile to their shenanigans. They will tell him they have won on their own and can join any other party if Imran refuses to pay the price for their cooperation. Imran Khan should have drawn a lesson from the recent events in Balochistan where the PMLN government fell like a house of cards when the party hoppers chose to move on to pastures new. Coming to power with the help of the notorious turncoats, Imran Khan would be no more than a puppet on the wire.
The lot of hardboiled fortune hunters around Imran Khan is already jockeying for power. Motivated by no higher ideal they are fighting battles within the party to strengthen their respective factions to get the largest chunk of cake in case the party comes to power. The exchange of accusations between the party’s VP Shah Mahmud Qureshi and its erstwhile Secretary Gen Jahangir Tareen is the latest after the Islamabad gathering of PTI dissidents that included Hamid Khan which demanded the reconstitution of the parliamentary board of the party. Imran Khan can do little other than look at the spectacle helplessly. This is a just a taste of things to come.
