Amir Mateen
ISLAMABAD: It was an extraordinary development that the prime minister sat in the National Assembly to receive the leader of the Opposition, perhaps for the first time ever, even before the proceedings had started.
But then these are no ordinary times. It seemed that the PTI stood absolutely isolated in its call for mid-term polls and agitation politics. From PPP’s Khursheed Shah to Aftab Sherpao everybody lambasted PTI for undermining Parliament, the courts, the Election Commission and every institution that represents the will of the people. Mahmood Khan once again played the role of the protector lord of democracy. He warned ominously that Balochistan, if there was any military intervention, was sure to come to a standstill.
Imran Khan was criticised for turning to Gandhian politics after having tried the ‘revolutions’ of Lenin, Marx and Mao in ways that they must be turning in their graves. And all this was being done in the name of ‘Azaadi’ that Jinnah got us without violating a law. There was almost unanimity that if the events led to violence or martial law the responsibility would rest with Imran Khan.
It is obvious that outside events have outsmarted Parliament. The political spectrum went through a tailspin when we learnt about the PTI resigning from the National Assembly and three provincial assemblies other than the KP. The ante seemed to have skyrocketed. So what are the consequences, we wondered. Will the PML (N) be able to withhold the pressure? Will it force the government to announce midterm polls? Obviously, there was no legal compulsion to do that. The government might just say good riddance and hold by-elections. This denies the PTI the chance to participate in the poll reforms that it wants desperately. The other parties, particularly PPP, might just be equally happy in sharing the booty. Most important, there is some chance that a section of the KP PTI might rebel against its party. The KP PTI will be under lots of pressure to go all the way and resign from its own government. The vulture parties – JUI, Sherpao and even JI – seemed already active to form their own government in the KP. The PML (N) government in Islamabad will hold the trump card if the PTI government got packed off. But the game was not over – not yet.
Hardly had we absorbed the tumultuous news, Imran Khan raised the stakes further by announcing to lead his workers to violate the Red Zone. The plan was to have women and children in the first tier. What do they call it, human shield? The plan is to romp over to Parliament, the PM House, the Presidency and whatever came in between. This ‘whatever’ also constitutes about a dozen foreign embassies, many of which most hated by PTI zealots.  This was more Qadrian politics than Gandhian. And we had no idea what Qadri had up his sleeve till the filing of this report. Obviously, Imran Khan was bent upon, in his own words, playing till the last ball. And this was going to be a no-holds-barred street cricket – damn the system and its institutions. Nothing was bigger than the ego of the mighty Khan.
Many believed that the desperation came after his idea about civil disobedience backfired. We were already confused about lots of Imranism but the call for civil disobedience takes the cake.
Forget that everybody rejected it from business community to political pundits to media gurus. Aitzaz Ahsan joked that Jahangir Tareen may have grounded his jet plane that Imran uses because he can’t use the fuel that includes GST. Khursheed Kasuri will close schools and poor Shafqat Mahmood was digging hand pump as he couldn’t use official water taps.
The biggest question is: who are his advisors. Half of his members swore in private that they were not consulted at all, particularly the dejected lot who were about to lose their seats. Who knows they might never get elected again. Some sought a ban on the PTI for suggesting anti-state civil disobedience. However, most people suspected that it was Sheikh Rasheed who had duped Imran to his own agenda. Imran was given the hope that he would get a call from Rawalpindi if he got together a huge number of people. But the call never came, maybe because the demands were much bigger than the crowd. In fact, there was now a possibility of Imran losing Peshawar in his bid to take Islamabad as Jamaat-i-Islami seemed to be changing colours. It could be a replay of the Kejriwal case in India. He got kicked out of the national polls because he resigned from the Delhi seat before delivering on his promises.
Imran was egged on to raise the stakes further. Nobody gets anything without body bags seemed to be the logic.  This argument goes well on Lal Haveli’s tharras, even on talk shows desperate for ratings, but real politics is a different ballgame – nah. Will the gamble work? Well, our guess is as good as yours. But our mole tells us that Sheikh Rasheed is the most worried man, as he does not want to lose his seat. And the happiest lot in the PTI is the non-elected advisors who are now at power with other losers.
So what will happen when the Khan leads his hordes to the Red Zone? Is it brinkmanship to bend the government or to make some people in Rawalpindi make the call? Our guess is that if the call ever came it might just be to ask him to chill off. Worse, if he goes ahead to enter the Red Zone either he would be arrested or have some people seriously harmed. Or he might just be allowed to go even further and try that too. Whatever the case, as Parliament was almost unanimous, the blame would rest on Imran Khan.
The News
August 19, 2014