What is happening in Islamabad these days is something between an agitation, a fun fair, and a call for Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to resign. The last bit, the Pakistan government says, ain’t happening even as the agitation continues with minor shocks. When Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s speeches get too-close-for-comfort for you-know-who, they get censored.
Now that’s hardly news in Pakistan, given how just a few days ago Maulana’s face was banned on television. The participants of the Azadi March are often seen dancing, enjoying themselves on swings, playing kabaddi, practising judo karate. It is like Dharna Olympics out there, minus the women. Of course, the eye is on the prize – freedom from Imran Khan.
The sit-in has entered the seventh day and is led by Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) in alliance with opposition parties, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Awami National Party, the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Peoples Party. They may all vary ideologically, but they all agree on one thing: that Imran Khan is a selected prime minister.
Also read: Fazlur Rehman: Pakistan’s Azadi March Maulana turns to politics after religion card fails
Back to 2014
It feels like 2014 all over again, an Imran Khan atop a container asking wazir-e-azam to go home. The PTI wallahs are not enjoying this at all, they don’t like the comparison. Maulana isn’t saying that he wants to make Naya Pakistan soon so that he can get married and neither is he talking about his opponents’ shalwars getting wet. After all, how can you compare burgers with halwa.
His azadi anthem might be Maulana aa raha hai but the PTI has taken the ‘aa raha hai’ part literally. Suddenly, the entire cabinet of Imran Khan is frightening the Pakistanis about a Maulvi raj. As if a government that promises a state of Medina to its people is really worried about a religious party. They’re also worried about Maulana’s ‘bad’ use of religion card versus Khan’s ‘good’ use of religion card.
Pakistanis haven’t forgotten how Imran Khan pandered to the far-Right to garner votes when he said, “We are standing with Article 295c (death penalty over blasphemy) and will defend it”. And then after coming to power, you tell the international community how your government was instrumental in releasing Asia Bibi, who actually suffered because of the law you had vouched to defend. That’s kosher.
Blame the liberals
But here’s what is really interesting. In this ongoing debate over who all should and shouldn’t support the religious Right-wing party, Imran Khan and his supporters have once again found their favourite punching bag — the khooni liberals.
It is the blood-thirsty liberals from the past who have come back to haunt the innocent Khan. Hate them, blame them and make them responsible for everything that’s ever gone wrong in Pakistan. How many murders have liberals committed in Pakistan for them to get the title of khooni liberals?
More importantly, how many liberals does Pakistan really have? Ten? But somehow this pack of 10 liberals, who are not politically represented, is now answerable for everything that is going wrong.
They ask, where are the liberals now when Maulana is talking about protecting the Khatam-e-Nabuwat (Finality of Prophethood)? Answer: They are exactly where they were when Khan was defending the same to gather votes.
They point out that Maulana has called Imran Khan a yahoodi or Jewish agent. Now will these liberals protest against this? After all, they say, these liberals speak up when Khan calls Maulana a yahoodi and an Indian national. There is so much expectation from these few people, who are also labelled blood-thirsty.
Also read: Imran Khan’s party rose to power on dharnas. Now it is hilariously trying to stop Azadi March
Taliban Khan
In Imran Khan’s own version of history, the blood-thirsty liberal fascists backed bombing of villages, drone attacks and the US policies, including the ‘war on terror’. They are the scum of Pakistan.
The fact is it was Khan who backed former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf’s decision to join the war on terror. He had justified Taliban time and again for fighting a holy war, he had outraged over the killing of Taliban commander Wali-ur-Rehman and even described him as ‘pro-peace’, and he said Taliban should be allowed to open an office in Peshawar – all this won him the title of Taliban Khan.
His dreams of talking to the Taliban are finally coming true – but the khooni liberals never wanted it.
Taking a cue from his leader, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan also said that liberals who want to turn Pakistan into a secular state should mend their ways or leave the country.
Imran Khan’s legacy
Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) tells us we should only worry about the bearded men and not the clean-shaven lot. But what about the clean-shaven lot who have a regressive record? After all, the PTI is often called the modern Jamaat-e-Islami. It supports assassin Mumtaz Qadri and child marriage. It makes school-girls wear burqa for their safety, and opposes the women rights protection bill. But clean-shaven Imran Khan still gets to call himself a true liberal.
The hybrid government finds itself in a tight spot because of its performance in the last 14 months. Domestically, the vendetta in the name of cleansing Pakistan’s corruption, the rising inflation, the unhappy business tycoons seeking help from the army chief, the protesting doctors, clampdown on media and shrinking space for dissent are the indicators. Imran Khan, however, insists that the army is supporting him.
Internationally, the less said the better. Even the United Nations General Assembly speech hasn’t delivered the promised results. Don’t ask what happened to the mediation between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Now the only hope is the Islamic television channel that Pakistan plans to launch with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey and Mahathir Bin Mohamad’s Malaysia. If successful, this could be a legacy of Imran Khan.
Also read: Reham Khan: In Pakistan, a Maulana’s dharna is making Imran Khan the rock star sweat
The author is a freelance journalist from Pakistan. Her Twitter handle is @nailainayat. Views are personal.
This is what the Almighty has bestowed on those who betray their land and practice falsehood.
So many falsehoods in one article.
1st of all, most of left leaning (whether Marxists or nationalists) in conventional and social media are backing Maulana and have been instrumental in promoting that this is watershed moment in democratic struggle in Pakistan. The exact same people about whom Maulana used to have verbal fights in which he talked about making those liberal women nude in public are for him now because they have never ever liked IK & last thing they want is break in status quo. The Pakistan with compromised Nawaz & Zardari at the helm suits them. Why shouldn’t PTI highlight the irony of this? There is nothing wrong in it, that is how politics is (no permanent friends & enemies) but there is irony in this.
Now coming to the litany of bald faced lies in this article. 1. IK never ever supported operation in tribal areas or war on terror. Even during the small time when he supported Mush, he was against it. 2. PTI just passed the law to protect women and facilitate them in getting inheritance. They passed it despite protests and opposition from so-called liberal PPP. PTI even when in opposition, never opposed any such measure. 3. PTI never supported Mumtaz Qadri or his execution. IK actually wrote an op-ed in support of Salman Taseer when he was assassinated.
I can go on and on with examples regarding this dishonest garbage but I think readers got the gist.