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Looking for the Skipper

When Imran Khan became the Prime Minister of
Pakistan, the people heaved a sigh of relief because
Pakistan was being put back on rails.

By Imran Jan | June 2020

The opponents of Imran Khan should not be concerned with how to fight against him and how to remove him from office and from relevance. He is his own worst enemy. He has a self-destructive tendency that is anathema to the cricket star one knew because then he loved to win.

The winner Khan is history. What is left is not identifiable. He stood against cronyism and yet he has today surrounded himself with an opportunistic brigade that will shame the ones they have replaced. The true loyalists of the party who believed in Khan and the cause that started the party are almost invisible now. They have been pushed to the margins and then further into oblivion and irrelevance.

The man who raised hopes and raised his voice against the murder of merit ended up becoming the killer of meritocracy. The man one supported because he was speaking for Pakistan ended up speaking for nothing. What he says sometimes is magical because it brings both tears and laughter in people. His bizarre arguments and repeated claims, which he renders useless with his actions, can be used by those who do comedy for a living.

Even Aamir Liaquat, the despicable conartist joined the PTI. A few years ago, that may have sounded like PTI was on drugs. Today, it appears like one could use some of those drugs to help make some sense of things. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, at one point, the pigs talk to humans while other animals look from the outside. To those animals, it becomes hard to distinguish between the pigs and the humans. They can’t tell one from the other just like one can’t tell Khan from those he still trashes.

Leaders are supposed to be strong and decisive. The world fears and respects strongmen, not gentlemen. Those nice, angel-sounding American presidents depicted by Hollywood are good for self-assuring needs. In the real world and, especially in a country like Pakistan, which is surrounded by haters and enemies, a strong and aggressive leader is needed. Imran Khan has been on a peace gestures spree with India ever since he became the Prime Minister. This has been one of his greatest mistakes. India and most nations for that matter do not respect peace gestures. they respect sabre-rattling.

Regarding Imran Khan’s response to the coronavirus crisis and his refusal to impose a strong lockdown, there are opinions on both sides. Bilawal Zardari likes to shine his credentials before the West by putting his weight behind the lockdown. To listen to Bilawal care for the lives of the people is the biggest falsehood of the century. He is pro-feminism (whatever that means in Pakistan), pro-free journalism (whatever that means in Pakistan) and pro-lockdown.

His maternal grandfather launched the PPP on the legs of Roti, Kapra Aur Makan. The people never got a glimpse of any of these. Bilawal’s mother, Benazir Bhutto, marketed herself as a great champion of democracy. That never dawned over Pakistan during her time. Her son Bilawal simply mouths the words that his party bigwigs want them to say and nothing has any weight.

For Bilawal, lockdown is a Godsend to suppress his already hungry and naked voters in non-urban Sindh to be further suppressed. People wouldn’t be dying of hunger – or dogbites - in Sindh had Bilawal or his late mother ever cared. There wouldn’t be children dying in their mothers’ laps outside hospitals in Sindh had Bilawal really been the man who cared for the people.

Imran Khan discourages imposing a strict lockdown because it would kill people of hunger more than the virus. To pursue this further, he could have taken some tough decisions and avoided sending mixed signals. He has rationalized many of the unpopular decisions he has taken over the past months by allowing so many hated characters into his party in the name of practicality. He has argued that electables were needed to win. Similarly, he should have taken a few more difficult and unpopular decisions by imposing a lockdown and showing some toughness.

The one aspect of lockdowns that is not yet discussed much is that it helps exert massive power and control over the citizenry. Even in the United States, tech giants such as Apple and Google have teamed up to create a system that has a nice sounding name on the surface, ‘contact tracing’, but underneath, it is an Orwellian machinery being put in place to take away people’s liberties from them. Such surveillance is touted as a cure and the answer to solving Covid-19. But in fact it is an exploitation of the crisis to spread the tentacles of the power system.

There are many conspiracy theories making the rounds these days. The virus is real and so is its lethality. The virus was certainly not made in some lab for a nefarious purpose. However, in the guise of protecting people, now certain controls are being exerted. The crisis provides a perfect opportunity for this because right now there is no debate between defending people versus defending their rights.

It is said Imran Khan’s days are numbered. People who supported Imran Khan used to worry about his safety, believing that he is the hope for Pakistan. Today, there is a lot of disappointment and loss of hope. Now, not many people are worried about who leads Pakistan.

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