Like many Pakistanis, I admire Imran Khan and his sincerity. But supporting him politically is a different matter. He and his party – Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) – have some serious soul searching to do before people give it their political support.
Imran Khan is one of the few principled politicians we have. There is no doubt that he truly cares about the country. His bold stance on May 12 and his consistent support for the restoration of the judiciary was unmatched by any other prominent politician. His cancer hospital and the projects he has started in the field of education have been praised even by many of his critics.
Someone like myself, who is dissatisfied with the politics and corruption of the leading parties, is naturally attracted to Imran Khan who talks about principles and accountability. However, as much as I like Imran for his honesty and devotion to the country, I have some concerns about him and can not help agreeing with Shafqat Mahmood’s statement that Imran never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Being politically inclined, I have even considered joining PTI at times, but reservations about his politics prevent me from doing so.
Imran Khan has been in politics for 13 years, and this is a long enough period to develop the party into a vibrant, democratic entity. Unfortunately, PTI still comes across more like an Imran Khan fan club rather than a democratic political party. For the most part, there is an absence of grass roots forums that meet regularly where any party member can raise issues and be heard, and the party line almost completely comes from the top.
Secondly, Imran does not realize that politics requires an appropriate mix of idealism and pragmatism and confuses this balancing act with opportunism. If he wants to serve the people of Pakistan by coming into power, then his decisions should be geared towards that goal. He had an excellent opportunity to launch himself when Nawaz Sharif offered him 20 odd seats in 1997 and again when Musharraf was willing to help him become the prime minister. Instead of spurning these offers, he should have taken a few ministries and worked hard on demonstrating through performance that he was someone who could truly deliver if given a chance. This could have provided him with the impetus needed to launch PTI into a force capable of getting elected into power on its own and then implement its reform agenda.
This unwillingness to balance idealism and pragmatism also creates doubts about his ability to deliver even if he came into power some day. It makes one wonder whether he would really take a practical approach towards addressing the country’s problems.
On top of all this, Imran Khan has a very confused stance on the Taliban where he still falls well short of fully condemning them.
He has been very consistently and forcefully bashing the Americans in recent years but the same kind of condemnation for the Taliban has not been forthcoming. This sharp contrast, when the Taliban have killed many more Pakistanis than the American drones, and when they are directly trying to destroy the state structure to establish their own rule, is hard to understand. It has taken some strong criticism for Imran Khan to finally make a few “too little too late” statements criticizing the Taliban, whereas what one expects from a good leader is the ability to clearly identify and point out a problem well ahead of time.
His stance on the current situation in Swat has again left a lot to be desired. He first vehemently opposed the military operation but did not explain what the government should do when the Taliban break a peace agreement and keep on expanding into neighbouring districts as they blatantly did after the Swat deal. Only after coming under regular fire has he finally accepted that a military operation can also be an option. He rightly says that bombings should be avoided and the operation should be carefully targeted, but the national debate could have been more focused on discussing how military action can be carried out in a way that minimizes civilian suffering if he and others had not been creating confusion by insisting that there should never be an operation.
In yet another example of muddled thinking, he now argues that before sending the army, a group of politicians should have been allowed to go and try to convince the Taliban to abide by the Swat peace deal. This makes one wonder why he did not publically propose this in the days leading up to the operation and what he is trying to accomplish by undermining the military’s efforts now that the time for this idea has clearly passed.
I really admire Imran Khan for his sincerity, but these are some of the serious issues that he and his party have to come to grips with, before PTI can make serious headway in realizing its full potential.
@WSD:
“What is the most important quality of a political leader? Integrity and honesty or pragmatism?”
Someone who lacks either one of the above two attributes is not a good leader. Integrity and sincerity are needed for obvious reasons. Pragmatism is required because the leader has to take a practical approach otherwise he can never accomplish anything.
The examples of ZAB you are giving fall in the category of opportunism, not pragmatism.
The point is that the compromises one makes should be geared towards the betterment of the country rather than one’s naked power pursuit. If IK had become PM under Mush, it wouldn’t have done much damage (since Mush was there anyway), but it would have given IK a chance to do some good. Once Mush’s actions became intolerable, such as the killing of Bugti or the firing of the CJ, IK could have resigned in protest.
Look at Iftikhar Chaudhry, he accepted the PCO in 2000, but as CJ he made a real impact within the system, much more than those who took a more idealist stance by rejecting the PCO. I think both Wajihuddin and Iftikhar Chaudhry deserve the same level of respect.
Bottom line: instead of just thinking in blak and white, that either you totally stay out of the power structure or you become a ZAB, there are lots of other possibilities in between.
Imran Khan, though chirismatic on the play grounds, has yet to make a mark as a politician. He is too emotional and novice in the field of politics. His opinion and analysis on national matters has been irrational and emotional rather than logical and backed by a vision for the future.
His party has never been able to score double digits in the elctions and even he decided to stay out of the elections and yet proclaimed to “serve the nation” – I wonder how.
He is always dissatisfied with every government and its policies but never giving out his vision to put the dirty play ground clean. His recent stance on Swat and FATA and the army operation is simply ridiculous – I wonder he ever visited these areas to know the facts on grounds. Holding talks with rebels and militants ( that are well known to have had links with foreign governments) is simply absured.
In these times, anyone talking of holding talks with militants should be taken as one of them as we cannot afford to talk with people holding guns and killing people. If we do so, then there would be no end and once again Islamabad and all cities of Pakistan will face lal Masjid Jamia Hafsa like situation.
We need to learn lesson from Sri Lanka where finally LTTEs have chosen to surrender. In the meantime, politicians novices and mature need to decide whether the love Pakistan or just want to become headlines of the newspapers for their personilty imaging only (this also includes Jamat-e-Islamai and Maulna Fazal, beside Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan).
http://tinyurl.com/r7tzh2
http://pkpolitics.com/2009/05/25/where-i-stand/
First article is by Irfan Waheed and the latter by Imran Khan….worth a read I’d say…
The following is myth
WSD said “What is the most important quality of a political leader? Integrity and honesty or pragmatism?”
A leader is someone who leads nation to a destination. In order to do that he first need a vision and sense of direction. Unfortunately Mr. Imran don’t have any vision and sense of direction. He is lost in 19th century when FATA tribes resisted their freedom agains Briish and thats his role model. Resistence and speedy justice.
WSD what is Mr Imran vision for Pakistan? Isolation from rest of world and handing over NWFP to Taliban?
Do you guys remember in 80s how Imran kicked a boy in Karachi on National TV when the boy came inside the ground to congratulate him.
900 choohe kha kar billi haj ko chali
despite his cricket successes, If his cricket career is a sign of how his personality is built, then we have another dictator in the making. Remember when he was captain, he was also the whole selection committee and an ‘un-daata’