It is a pity that the Herald (August 2017, Faryal Gohar) has classified Imran Khan (PTI) among the ‘Most influential Pakistanis after Jinnah’. His opponents consider him just another political cricketer, flanked by nouveau riches, still in search of rich turncoats. Imran Khan suffers from ‘persecution complex’. And, he is determined to become a prime minister by hook or by crook.
In his autobiography, he blamed the Inter-Services Intelligence, for his failure to win more than one seats. He believes no pauper or person without Establishment’s support can enrol in politics. To quote him from his autobiography: `Cash is essential for political candidates in Pakistan, who can spend a minimum of 10 million rupees in rural constituencies. No politician in country’s history up till then had ever beaten the establishment’ (p.225.)
He asked his social-media tigers to launch a character assassination of Ayesha Gulalai and her sister. Later, following the opposition’s outrage, he tweeted his trolls to spare the sister. About another PTI lady member Sana Baloch he said she was ‘good for nothing’. Baloch has been gagged, but Gulalai is still vociferous. He along with other PTI parliamentarians devoured parliamentary-attendance allowance for eight months of absence. But he never credited the money into flood relief fund, as publicly promised.
Imran Khan now flaunts himself as a stalwart and the protégé of the establishment and agencies. How could such an intellectual turncoat, having no stable beliefs, be called an `influential leader’? By his own words, all his parliamentary seats are a gift of the establishment and agencies.
AMJAD JAVED
Rawalpindi
