Last Over!

Imran Khan was the star cricketer-turned-politician the political system did not take seriously. After two decades of struggle came his time. He was elected as the Prime Minister in 2018. He had gone from winning the only Cricket World Cup for Pakistan to becoming the elected leader who had championed the drainage of the corruption filled swamp that Pakistan’s political system had become. He had proven the naysayers in cricket wrong and had now proven the naysayers of the political arena as even more wrong. His biggest transition as well as his attainment of the pinnacle, however, was yet to come.

Today’s Imran Khan is a messiah in the minds of the Pakistani people, both inside Pakistan and overseas. Khan represents the only hope for the country’s betterment and survival. I have personally met people from India who viewed Pakistanis to be lucky to have Imran Khan as their leader. They told me how they were unfortunate not to have an Imran Khan in India.

There were many supporters as well as neutrals who had been disappointed with Imran Khan, especially over his decision to include people such as Aamir Liaquat and others in his party. However, those and many others have moved from being disappointed to being supporters and supporters have moved to become unconditional loyalists because the Imran Khan of today represents something a lot bigger and a lot nobler a cause. This is about the nation’s sovereignty and respect. Imran Khan is standing up against the meddling in the affairs of the state. He is resisting the actions that violate the nation’s sovereignty. He has become a fighter to ensure that only the citizens of Pakistan, instead of foreign citizens, would have a say in who decides the affairs of the state.

People around the world have come out in protest against the wrongful ouster of their beloved leader. Protests have been brewing in Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. The next election has become a battle for the sovereignty of the nation. The battle would be between those who want no compromise over the dignity of their nation versus those who have written off their own fate as beggars.

This leads me to a strange and saddening comment Shahid Afridi had made in the 2011 Cricket World Cup. He said that he had wanted to be able to play the semi finals. It was that very Semi Final that Pakistan had lost to India. When the approach and the aim is so low, then fate never shines the nation. Aiming to be beggars instead of a sovereign nation or to be able to just play instead of win the semi final will bring only the low hanging fruit. It is the never-give-up and always can win approach that Khan is trying to instill in the nation’s psyche. And to a greater extent he has been successful because otherwise we wouldn’t be seeing such huge rallies across the nation.

If early elections are called, there is no doubt that Imran Khan would win with an overwhelming majority. In the absence of any shenanigans, which literally is the middle name of those in Pakistan who have experience in this sort of tradecraft, and in the absence of foreign citizens having more power than Pakistani citizens, the elections would turn out to be a squeaky clean victory for Imran Khan. Will there be shenanigans? Will there be foreign meddling? The bigger question is: would foreign meddling and shenanigans be allowed? The biggest question of all is: will there be elections?

The more realistic argument is that an early election would mean so much work in the background. Massive reshuffling among the military establishment, judiciary, backed up by a realization that the wrong people are in charge of the government. Furthermore, an early election would have to be preceded by massive protests happening around the majority of the real estate of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. There would have to be an unstoppable mass movement and unabated mass anger that would change the calculus of all those who hold power, including foreign citizens. And just as Obama had hugged Modi on his becoming the PM of India, followed by years of him being banned from entry into the United States, perhaps the United States would also behave as if it had always been on the side of Imran Khan. All this and much more would have to happen before an early election because as painful as it may sound, but given Pakistan’s history, the ballot would have to be a mere formality. The mass rallies must be treated as the ballot.