Adil Najam
Flying in from London to Islamabad, I bumped into Imran Khan on the plane. There he was, sitting a couple of rows ahead of me, reading The News, with his own picture on its front page (meeting Nawaz Sharif in London). I had not yet seen the paper, nor followed that days events in London (I was flying in from Amsterdam where I had been in meetings all day). We exchanged a few pleasantries, said nice things about what we had been up to since we had last met in Chicago just about a year ago (I had reported in detail on that here).
I must say, I did not fully grasp everything he said until later after I landed in Islamabad and first saw his supporters and TV cameras lined up at the airport, and then every news channel covering his press conference in London, and its political implications. In our short conversation he pretty much covered the exact same points I saw him presenting on TV,with pretty much the same passion. I guess he had come fresh from the press conference. Since all of that is now in the news already, I will not repeat it. The one thing I did ask him about were rumors about his ‘patch up’ with the MQM leading to the lifting of the ban on his entry into Sindh. Readers would remember those rumors surfacing everywhere, including on ATP, a few days ago. He shrugged those away as nonsense and just rumors.
My own sense from this very brief discussion chat was that:
(a) he does seem very serious abut taking on MQM Chief Altaf Hussain,
(b) that he fully realizes the seriousness of what he is doing, and
(c) he seems to be doing this out of personal conviction much more than political opportunism.
I may turn out to be wrong, but my first impression was that the earnestness with which he spoke about what he was doing and why that cannot be easily faked. This, then, seems not to be a story that will fizzle away easily. Not if Imran can help it.
If this is, in fact, so then Pakistan politics will continue to become even more interesting than it already is. ‘Party’ politics may just come back into limelight, but not ways one had expected. If indeed there are to be elections in Pakistan soon then the impact of this tussle could go well beyond defining what happens to just Imran Khan and the MQM.
By the way, as it turned out it was an interesting PIA fight to be on. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao boarded soon after me. As did Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan (returning, I believe from the WTO meeting in Geneva). They both greeted Imran graciously, and briefly, and then then nearly all of us made the best of the overnight flight by going off to sleep. Of course, I first watched the ‘Tribute to a Legend’ show on Pakistani filmstar Muhammad Ali on the PIA channel.
P.S. In case you wonder, no, I did not speak to either of the Ministers. I do not know either of them, and would not have known what to say anyhow, especially if either of them had seen my own most recent musings on the political happenings in Pakistan.
@King Faisal
You have raised some good points & here is the answer:-
Imran Khan did not support Mush in 2000. He supported his 7 point agenda. There is a difference between you supporting a personality & you supporting his views. Supporting a personality means you consider the personality ABC’s views as right no matter what he says. Supporting views mean you support a personality ABC because of the views. The day the personality ABC become disloyal to his previously stated views, you have the due right to distance yourself from him.
And that’s what Imran Khan did. He supported Musharraf because of his 7 point agenda. Because Musharraf failed on all of them, Imran now says he is against Mush. And also in his BBC HARD TALK interview he called his previous support as a mistake. I guess that’s enough a reply on this.
Secondly you compared Imran with Jinnah & ZAB. What you forgot to mention is the fact that Jinnah & ZAB were not alone. Jinnah had the vision of people like Iqbal, Maulana Johar & other great ML leaders. He joined a party & gave it energy. The party had already a vision by the great Sir Syed & Later Iqbal. Jinnah worked under such great names as his help. ZAB had the support of the establishment & later on the feudal group. He had many similar supporting bricks.
Imran has started a party from zero & has gone against probably everyone in his game. All the establishment has become his enemy & considering all this isn’t it big deal that he was able to manage this much. You cannot run a local Nazim Election if the local establishment is against you, what to talk of forming a political party. So considering these 36 years is nothing in Imran’s case. And when did IMRAN said or showed as if he wanted to be a PM. His only motive is to win an objective, whoever be the PM or in gov. That is the rule of law & justice. His other priority being health and education. In all his interviews he seems to be the only clear man in vision & view. All others jump from one to other statement
Yes indeed he won’t likely be successful; given the system we have but don’t look at what he could not achieve. Look from where he started & appreciate him came this long. May be after 50 years you see his party wining a good portion of seats. And if he can keep his party away from ARMY, FEUDAL & CORRUPT people we may see a hope of change.
Rate him from where he started and on which pitch. A pitch which is as dirty as one can imagine.
You mentioned his personal life. First of all, is that the only point which his opponents have to say something on? The answer is indeed yes. But firstly we suppose for the sake of argument that he had done something really wrong. Considering this parameter, none, including Musharraf should be able to be in power. Why don’t you discuss the alcohol drink brand Mush likes?
Your statement “imran khan’s yateem status in pakistani politics is a testament to political acumen of pakistani awam which is smart enough to see through hypocrisy of a man especially one who lectures on morality and yet cannot acknowledge the existence of his own daughterâ€
Faraz, I concur with you on the core issue facing Pakistan. You’ve rightly said that Pakistan needs a revolution in the fields of education, media and I’d add first and foremost, judiciary.
Such a change can only come once you have “political outsiders” leading the nation. I consider Imran Khan to be a political outsider i.e. he is not a feudal, nor a corrupt industrialist, nor the son of a general or the scion of a political family.
Expecting a change in status quo from a military dictator is too naive.
I think we should give imran a chance to govern the country.The ression is whatever he said he did(e.g hospital,world cup & case against killer alttaf).we tried ppp.pml.mma&army.if we lose this chance we never get on trek.every country in this world is thinking about themselves & this is our responsibility to think our country.
He has everything in life, and he doesnt really need to do politics which has caused great harm to his glorious fame. But he is doing it for the sake of his people, and I really respect his cause.
Imran khan has not been able to win, but at least there is someone who is speaking truth and it is obvious that he wants to do better things and clearly has failed to do so, but we should analyze it and help him coz our next generation will ask us the questions if we fail too.
Let us decide today, that we will become his team, support him morally and wake up the silent majority. I have never voted before but this time I am determined to do so; whether tehreek-e-insaf wins or not; but we have to keep this movement running.