Powerful bullies

Naya Pakistan is here but someone forgot to send the memo to MPA Dr Imran Ali Shah. The PTI parliamentarian from Sindh was caught on video physically attacking a man over what seems to be a traffic dispute in Karachi. The clip quickly went viral on social media, forcing Shah to apologise to the victim. The party has now condemned him and issued a show-cause notice. The heavy-handedness of people in people who believe themselves to be above the law is not restricted to one party but the PTI has been so sanctimonious in promising that it would usher in a new era that it is difficult not to note its hypocrisy. Shah’s initial response to the incident was telling. He denied slapping the person even though it was caught on video and claimed the clip that was circulating was “half truth and misleading”. He even claimed to have apologised to the person after the attack but the video clearly shows him walking back to his car and driving away without offering any apology. The contrition that has now followed, including an apology delivered to the victim in person, is clearly a response to the media outrage.

The question now is how the PTI intends to deal with this situation. Should the party let it slide, it would justifiably be criticised for giving a pass to one of its own for behaviour the party would justly condemn in others. For the rest of us, this should serve as a reminder not to seek salvation in populist promises of new eras suddenly coming into being. The PTI’s claims of representing a new, honest form of politics have been taken at face value, despite many of its members being a part of the old guard that treats public office as giving them immunity from consequences for their actions. The lesson here should be that all promises of reform should be treated with appropriate scepticism – and those who made those promises should also be constantly reminded of them. Ultimately, it is the PTI that needs to show how it plans to change a political culture that treats rule of law with disdain. The party now needs to show if it truly believes its own words or if its promises were meant to lure in voters only to be abandoned as soon as it attained power