By Sardar Khan Niazi
Imran Khan represents the visions, expectations, and ambitions of the people of Pakistan. He will withstand all the unpleasant remarks against him until the 2023 elections. His arrest and detention or disqualification will lead nowhere.
Imran Khan is a leader who has organized masses including the urban upper middle class. He dexterously uses the power of social media. He surely shall be able to maintain his support base until the elections next year.
The PDM government cannot project Pakistan’s political direction. The governance quality by present rulers, the economic revival, inflation control, flood relief, and rehabilitation will play a major role in deciding the political direction.
The PTI chief’s arrest and disqualification will not change the present political direction. The public mood is strongly defiant, as has been seen by the previous two attempts to seize him.
The PDM government planned strategy using strong administrative actions, maligning Imran Khan through an IT-based smear campaign, entrapping him in unending legal battles, and appraising the PTI’s narrative over state-controlled media would not be able to stem the pro-Imran tide.
Presently, the despair is mostly economic despair. It is the main cause, which is mobilizing the dispossessed masses under the PTI leadership. The public discontent is actually challenging the PDM government.
Two threatening issues loom large on the horizon: the perilous state of the national economy and the dire situation in the vast flood-affected areas of the country.
Agriculture is the backbone of the economy. Farmers caught by the intolerable impact of rising inflation, black marketing, and energy price hikes under the umbrella of the Kissan Ittihad reached Islamabad and put forward several demands before the government.
Millions upon millions of unfortunate victims of the devastating rainy season are waiting for the promised bounties to arrive in form of food, medicines, and donations to kick-start their journey back home.
Unluckily, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has blamed the PTI Chairman Imran Khan for ruining Pakistan’s economy, which has caused quite a commotion in different circles of the country and abroad.
Plunging to newer historic lows every now and then, in the pursuit of their dreams does not suit the politicians. As a member of the executive, PM Sharif would have been in a more desirable position bearing in mind the implicit rules about decency before letting the cat out of the bag, that too, before global media.
The PDM government does not matter for the vast majority of Pakistanis in the rural heartland, especially in flood-ravaged areas. PDM has not so far been able to meet the challenge of floods and fix the economy which is why it has failed to make a dent in PTI’s popularity and vote bank.
The PDM government has devised a plan to counter the PTI-long march. It consists of the deployment of the Army in the capital city’s Red Zone in order to halt the entrance of marchers into the high-security area. As many as 30,000 personnel of Islamabad and Sindh Police, Rangers, and FC are to be deployed to ensure law and order in the capital city.
No matter in what way the PTI is trying to bring the masses to join the long march, which actually hurts the PDM government, the present rulers need to act within the limits of decency and in accordance with its current station. Our sear homeland deserves some redeeming feature; a new beginning; freedom out of the chaos.
There is a need especially on the part of the PDM government to prevent the looming clash and resolve the difference of opinion without harming the economy or distracting attention from the miseries of millions of people facing hunger and disease. The way out is to talk and talk only.
