responsible for the martial law by making provocative speeches against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at public gatherings,” commented one of the founding members of TI.
“He said on record that he would hang Bhutto from Kohala Bridge once he came to power. All that was for public consumption but end result was disastrous for the country and his political party,” he added.
Asghar Khan remained under house arrest during most of Gen Zia’s rule. He joined Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD) in 1983. Eventually he merged his party with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in January 2012. This was the political demise of a party that was once popular with a countrywide presence.
Cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan founded Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in 1996. It didn’t get encouraging response from political figures in its early days but after the mammoth public meeting at Minar-e-Pakistan in October 2011 politicians of all hue and shade started flocking to his party in search of greener postures. The PTI did well to win 30 odd seats of the National Assembly and won enough provincial assembly seats to form its government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
It seems history is once again repeating itself. Imran Khan also led a long march and sit-in against the alleged rigging in the 2013 general election. He has been endlessly criticising Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other politicians.
Like Asghar Khan, Imran Khan also uses harsh and sometimes derogatory language against his political rivals, surely for public consumption. According to political observers, he is oblivious of the consequences for the country and his own political party due to his obstinacy.
Many PTI parliamentarians are already unhappy with Imran over his decision to resign from the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies in Punjab and Sindh. In private conversations they admit that they are fed up with Imran Khan’s inflexible and extreme stance on the issue of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s resignation.
The PTI president Javed Hashmi has already quit the PTI after making some disclosures that embarrassed Imran. Certain political observers believe if Imran remains adamant and refuses to listen to the sane voices in the party, the PTI’s fate would not be the different from Asghar Khan’s TI.