The unravelling of Imran?

As I waited for our luggage at the baggage carousel of the Karachi airport earlier this week, getting readjusted to local disorder, someone put his hand on my shoulder.

“I am sorry”, this middle-aged man with a kindly face and a gentle voice interrupted my thoughts. “I know you are a journalist. I was on a vacation for three weeks and had decided not to follow the national events. Now I am back. Could you please give me some idea of what is happening in Pakistan?”

“That makes two of us”, I said, honestly. I was also returning after nearly three weeks and this absence was meant to be an escape that our two daughters had planned much in advance. Yet, the occupational hazards of being a journalist cannot be dodged for too long. The responsibility of being a concerned citizen also prescribes a serious involvement with the state of affairs.

So, here I am, chewing the cud, so to say. I had initially thought of continuing with my escape and write a column or two about our family escape and share some glimpse of the cities that we visited. Going away from a sad place, particularly in a festival season when Christmas illuminations have brightened the proceedings, provides an excuse to tell stories.

But what I see happening in Pakistan is, in my view, politically very significant. Is what we are witnessing the unravelling of Imran Khan? Is the promise that had burst across the political horizon in recent months beginning to be eclipsed? Was the revolution that Imran Khan had sought to lead untenable, to begin with?

We can be sure that ardent supporters of Imran Khan would give little credence to any grim prognostications about PTI’s prospects. Political loyalties respond very, very slowly to emerging realities. And comprehending these realities is the task at hand. Yes, there still can be unforeseen shifts in the overall situation. But some significant developments cannot be easily disregarded.

It has to be noted that Imran Khan ran his campaign breathlessly for more than eight months, beginning before he was actually voted out of office in a no-confidence move. There was this letter that he pulled out of his pocket, as evidence of ‘cipher’ conspiracy hatched by the United States.

You have to give it to the former prime minister that this protest movement was well conceived, organized and executed. Day after day after day, a boisterous public rally was staged in this and that town, with Imran Khan splashed across the media. One can only imagine the cost of this exceptional enterprise. But while individual rallies were all very impressive, the ultimate goal of raising the tsunami of a long march – the Haqiqi Azadi march – remained elusive. When you take so many U-turns, it is hard to even travel hopefully.

I cannot go into all the embarrassments that Imran Khan has had to suffer, including the waning of the narratives that he had hoisted. Just look at his present predicaments. The PTI leader is finding it very difficult to get his party to resign from all assemblies, as he had resolved at the end of his long march in Rawalpindi – without daring to march to Islamabad.

It seems incredible that a leader who had been portrayed almost as a force of nature is apparently unable to the match the wily devices of a Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi who has also made this beguiling revelation that it was outgoing chief of the army, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa who had asked him to support Imran Khan, even though the PTI warriors have cast him as a villain.

Simultaneously, on the moral plane, Imran Khan is losing face in the explosive Toshakhana affair and the selling of the gifted watches. Some more incriminating details have come to light. The plot thickened with a new audio leak in which Bushra Bibi is allegedly telling PTI leader Zulfi Bukhari that Imran Khan has some watches that he wants to sell.

While Imran Khan has invested almost all his political capital in trying to prove that his adversaries, mainly the Sharifs, are incurably corrupt, the Toshakhana saga has tarred him with the same brush. In fact, there is an ironic twist in Imran Khan’s pathological preoccupation with the corruption of the Sharifs.

On Thursday, British newspaper Daily Mail apologized to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif over a 2019 article which had alleged that Shehbaz Sharif had siphoned off British aid money meant for earthquake victims. The publication informed the court that it had decided against going to trial and would settle the case initiated by Mr Sharif.

This is an obvious vindication of the prime minister and a source of discomfiture for the PTI. Incidentally, this is not the first time that Shehbaz Sharif has won a victory against allegations of corruption, levelled by the PTI leadership. In December 2019, bank accounts of Shehbaz Sharif and his son Suleman in the United Kingdom had been frozen on the joint request of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Assets Recovery United (ARU), led by Shahzad Akbar, then adviser to PM Imran Khan on accountability.

After investigation, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), submitted its report in September last year before a relevant court, requesting it to set aside the accounts freezing orders of Shehbaz Sharif and his son.

Meanwhile, of course, Imran Khan himself has to deal with allegations of corruption. The Toshakhana episode and the circumstances in which the high-prized watches have been sold is yet unfinished. There are other cases pending in the superior courts that relate also to foreign funding and contempt issues.

There is, then, a great sense of suspense about the future of Imran Khan’s politics and whether he could be disqualified. Even otherwise, these December days are haunted by unbearable memories. Imran Khan has said that he does not want to remain a part of the present system. But what system can finally prevail in Pakistan – with or without this or that player?

The writer is a senior journalist. He can be reached at: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com