Imran Khan's recent ravings and frenzy have made it clear what his ambitions are now that he is out of government. To what depths he is prepared to sink in order to return to power. Which narratives of hatred he is prepared to promote. He can set the market of killing and bloodshed ablaze in this country. He can set the capital on fire. He can order the provinces to march on the federation. He can disgrace institutions. He can slander the city of justice. He can send the message of the country's economic decline to the whole world, and, what is more, he can now openly speak of the partition of the country. This is exactly what was expected of Imran Khan. A man who ran the country for four years in a state of intoxication, who made appointments of government officials by drawing names out of an earthen pot, who made every opposing thought and voice a target of revenge, who proudly unleashed the scourge of inflation upon the people. What else can anyone expect from such a man?
The problem is that Imran Khan was not even an elected ruler. He was made to be elected. The ground for elections was levelled for him, the heart of the media was softened for him. He was given the title of honest and trustworthy by the courts. Life was made hard for every opponent of his. Votes were provided for him in the Senate. Every bill he wished for was passed by the National Assembly. His social media was funded from who knows where. To please him, justice was stalled. At times the investigation into the BRT was banned, at times the foreign funding case was left to rot in cellars for years. At times Buzdar was declared Wasim Akram Plus. At times Farah Gogi's exploits were concealed. At times opponents were put in jail without any case. At times positive reporting was ordered. At times allied parties were managed. All of it was done openly for Imran Khan. No veil, no curtain was left. The favourite was brought to power with indulgence, and even after being brought into government, for four years his tantrums were indulged.
After so much struggle and so much knowledge, what was the result? The man who was presented as Pakistan's saviour turned against Pakistan itself. The man appointed ruler of this sacred land began to talk of dividing that same country into three pieces. He began to hold his own benefactors up to contempt and ridicule. What was the use of this hybrid system? What was the use of plundering the 2018 election? What was gained by trampling the will of the people underfoot? What was gained by crushing the political parties? If the begging bowl of need was to be held out to those same parties today, they should have thought earlier that such a hybrid system could not succeed. No plant on earth can survive on artificial respiration. What was gained by whipping the people in the name of democracy? What was gained by heaping accusations and slander on political leaderships?
The country has reached the point where a pampered favourite is talking of breaking it up. He is announcing the end of the army, and he is honouring the country with the humiliation of default. There is now no arrangement to stop this favourite. There is now no way to deliver the nation from the ravings of a sick mind. There is now no way to save it from this devastation and ruin. There is now no way to save Pakistanis from the ritual of hatred. Through Imran Khan we now face constant shame and mischief-making, and those who used to find solutions to the country's problems in minutes are sitting with their mouths shut tight. The only question is this: do they now have no solution? Those who used to take great decisions in drawing rooms in moments, do they now have no cure for this sedition?
Looking back today, one will realise that the problem is not Imran Khan. The real problem is the mindset that attacks democracy every ten years, that builds such hybrid systems and invents such pawns. Those forces do not stop experimenting in this country. It remains to be seen whether any lesson has been learned from this chastening experiment, or whether the Eighth Amendment is still in the firing line.
This is the very country where the people's leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged. Benazir Bhutto was left drenched in blood. Twice her governments were ravaged. Three times Nawaz Sharif was removed from government. Despite all this, no one spoke of dividing Pakistan, because their roots were in this country. They had the support of the people. Their thinking was democratic. They had the power of the vote, and they knew that if times were hard today, their time would come again tomorrow. Their sinking stars could rise again. Imran Khan is different from them. Khan knows that the hybrid system cannot be set up again. The help of every institution cannot be enlisted again to elect another "selected" one. The will of the people cannot be trampled again for this man. That is why Imran Khan, having burned all his boats, wants to set the country on fire, for he now has no other option. His page has been torn out of the book of politics. He and his party are now a thing of the past. He has no pretext left for coming to power. Now there is only anger, chaos, hatred and division, and in their path stand this country, its people and the system.
