The country has not yet recovered from Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech. Kashmir has not either, it seems. The Nadrendra Modi government has though, and the initial reaction of fleeing from Kashmir is apparently over. The world too has recovered from the speech and decided to let the bigger market win.
Imran had one arrow left in his quiver, though. He can offer US President Donald Trump something neither China nor Ukraine could give him: evidence against Joe Biden. If Imran could get the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to stitch up all those of his opponents, he would not have any problem showing that Biden was busy taking bribes here, and that his son Hunter was defrauding people with a fake housing scheme. NAB only needed to be asked nicely, and it would provide approvers as well.
In the meanwhile, Imran has shown how you can defend the honour of the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) by a single speech, and free Kashmir in the bargain. Of course, there are other things going on in Kashmir, which we will find out about later, or even never. For example, the new Indian Air Force (IAF) chief has revealed that one of the IAF’s reactions to Pakistani resistance to the second raid after Phulwama, was to shoot down one of its own helicopters. I assume there was not a cow aboard the helicopter, even though Modi and the rest of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) must be upset that cows were not getting the best possible protection. Of course, the IAF being the IAF, maybe the result could have been roast beef.
Though Imran’s speech was so forceful, it was not exploited properly. Perhaps that is why Pakistan’s permanent representative at the United Nations (UN) got sacked. If she had done her job properly, then the Indian occupation forces would have left Kashmir by the time Imran finished his speech. Hers was probably the biggest change in the Foreign Office (FO), but there were several more. There were also changes in the federal cabinet indicated, though that has not happened yet. The implications clear: if India does not vacate Kashmir, ministers should not be surprised if heads roll.
Meanwhile, while Imran has emerged as the expert on getting India to vacate Kashmir, we find that Adam Smith has been replaced as the ‘Father of Economics’ by a member of the National Development Council (NDC). I had assumed that businessmen had gone to General Headquarters (GHQ) to gain enlightenment, but it seems that they went to tell the chief of army staff (COAS) that there could be no compromise on paying taxes; that they would not pay, no matter what NAB did. That showed how out of it businessmen are, because the purpose of NAB is not to make businessmen pay taxes, but to provide an excuse to put wrongheaded and evil-minded persons, especially those who oppose Imran, behind bars.
We do not know the opinion of Shahzad, the Chunian muder accused, about Imran, but NAB had nothing to do with his incarceration. It seems that he had been reported missing, and the event’s gravity was increased by the fact that he had taken the family tractor with him. Now modern technology plays a role, for his mobile phone was traced to both the murder scene and to Rahim Yar Khan. The last person to go to Rahim Yar Khan from around these parts was Salahuddin Ayyubi, whose torture on video got smartphones banned in police stations.
Well, Shehzad lived, as maybe the Rahim Yar Khan police did not have a role in his interrogation. Shehzad has done time for sodomy before, though this time he has added murder to his repertoire. There are a number of takeaways from this episode for serial killers and other criminals. The first is that you must not take along the family tractor, nor carry along any mobile phones. Flee by all means, but do not go to Rahim Yar Khan. Only if you are very, very lucky, will you escape alive.
Everybody has been referring to the previous incidents in Kasur district, while talking about Shehzad. It is sad, the country having so better sex crime capital than Kasur. Right. There is Copenhagen, Amsterdam. And Kasur. But instead of the past, let us look at what’s happened afterwards. A Child Protection Bureau employee having a First Information Report (FIR) registered against him by the head of the CPC. An eight-year-old girl criminally assaulted and killed in Faisalabad. (Imran must be regretting having Rana Sanaullah arrested; he would have preferred the drugs charge to this.)
Imran might be more interested in the Sri Lankan tour of Pakistan. So far they have lost the ODI series in Karachi, but have one the first T20I in Lahore. They won’t be the only visitors to Pakistan. The duke and duchess of Cambridge will be visiting too. Maybe they can be asked to help with the British courts, which have been giving decision after decision against Pakistan, the latest being the decision giving the heirs of the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Indian government £35 million that the last Nizam had given to the first Pakistani high commissioner to London. Maybe the government should change its lawyers. Someone who will talk to the judges’ readers before the case begins. Or maybe have a video of the judge taped.
Or maybe it is just another conspiracy against Imran, like the protests in Baghdad, where 99 people had been killed, by a government trying to stamp it out. Not the best advertisement ahead of Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Azadi March, is it? And the reasons for the protest sound hauntingly familiar. Inflation. Youth unemployment. The US really should not get into the business of nation-building.
Imran has decided not to intervene, not because he’s against it, but because he cannot decide between a dharna and a speech. And that is the same reason he’s not intervening in Hong Kong, where the protests are getting slowly more violent, with the police only now, after so many weeks, using live ammo.
