Sunday May 28, 2023
Caught in the eye of the storm, it is not easy to fully understand the meaning and drift of events unfolding at such a rapid pace. What we can see is the decimation of Imran Khan's party, a spectacular turn of events in Pakistan's political history. And other consequences of the May 9 attacks on military facilities are exploding all around.
But should the former prime minister be tried in a military court for his alleged involvement in the planning and execution of these attacks? Or will he be removed from the political scene by a conviction in one of the many cases heard in the ordinary courts?
Furthermore, there is still a great sense of confusion and disbelief about what happened and is happening. At the heart of it all is the sudden decline and fall of a leader who dominated the scene with his passionate following across the social spectrum. It will stand out as a spectacle in our history that something of this magnitude could happen in the blink of an eye, so to speak.
There is much more going on at other levels that will ultimately affect the balance of power and authority in the country. The elite in Punjab, for example, will have to deal with the tensions that will erupt within their ranks. The higher judiciary has its own disagreements to contend with.
There is a case in point when the Supreme Court on Friday stayed the federal government's notification of setting up a judicial commission to probe a series of audio leaks involving close relatives of the Chief Justice and the Supreme Court judge himself. The commission was headed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa.
On the other hand, it also became clear to us the decision of the authorities to deal harshly with all those who participated in the attacks on military installations and monuments. A number of rioters were handed over to the army to be tried in military courts.
A cautionary tale highlighted in the media was Tuesday's arrest of fashion designer and socialite Khadija Shah, daughter of former finance minister Salman Shah, on terrorism charges for her alleged involvement in the attack on the Lahore Corps Commander's house. There are other cases that show that the operation carried out by the authorities is strict and persistent. This was of course reinforced by a concerted and carefully designed push to promote patriotic fervor.
I emphasized the high drama of what was happening. And it is an emotional experience for most of us, including those who are not ardent Imran Khan fans. One ongoing spectacle is PTI leaders one by one appearing in press conferences to announce their decision to quit PTI and part ways with Imran Khan. At the same time, they condemn the events of May 9.
Its pathos, especially in the case of respectable women like Shireen Mazari and Maleeka Bokhari, can be heartbreaking. There are other cases of grown men sobbing on live television. It is true that PTI is actually the person of Imran Khan, but the disintegration of the top leadership of the party in fast motion is a definite denial of where Imran Khan has taken his party with his decisions and policies.
Imran Khan often boasts about his knowledge of countries and things. He had the audacity to go to a foreign country and tell an audience that he knew the history of that country better than some of those present. One wonders if he has any inkling of classical literature to see himself as the protagonist of a Greek tragedy.
In ancient Greek theatre, a tragedy would be a play in which "an important person and outstanding personal qualities fall into disaster through a combination of personal failure and circumstances beyond his control".
Imran Khan, who has become lonelier and lonelier in his Zaman Park mansion, perhaps waiting for something ominous to happen, should now have time to reflect on how he squandered the large cult following he had acquired with his reckless twists and shifting narratives. An objective assessment of the decisions he made at critical moments would show that he lacks the wisdom of a politician and the vision of a leader.
That such a large number of people were (are?) willing to blindly look to him for redemption also speaks volumes about the state of our society with its dismal intellectual and moral attributes.
It will be time to review Imran Khan's long journey till May 9. At this point we wonder why he seemed willing to oppose the army when he often referred to its chief as some sort of adversary. More details are likely to emerge soon, but there are strong suspicions that the May 9 attacks were planned by someone, somewhere.
According to an Ansar Abbasi report published in this newspaper on Friday, the intelligence agency told the government that the events of May 9 and 10 were conceived and planned with the involvement of Imran Khan. An intelligence report claimed that Imran Khan had given specific instructions to target specific locations in case of his arrest.
This is what the federal ministers also claim in their statements. One of them asked this question: if there was no reaction after the assassination attempt on Imran Khan, why this violent reaction to his arrest? And it seems it was Firdaus Ashiq Awan who upped the ante by saying at her farewell PTI press conference that the plot against the army was hatched in Zaman Park. Imran Khan is still holding his own in a difficult situation, but it is Maryam Nawaz who insists that "the game is over".
