Opportunity missed
Prime Minister (PM)
Imran Khan’s speech at a rally of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) supporters in
Washington DC has set off another round of controversy, recriminations,
accusations and counter-accusations between the government and the opposition. Addressing
a large crowd at Washington’s Capital One Arena on July 21, 2019, Imran Khan
followed his by now familiar script of castigating the opposition leaders as
corrupt, offered a ‘plea bargain’ to them whereby they could walk free if they return
the alleged looted money, and threatened to take away facilities such as air
conditioning, home cooked food and TV from them in jail until and unless they
returned the loot. Predictably, the speech evoked criticism from some at the
venue and a fierce response from the opposition at home. The dissident voices
at the venue said that the PM should have focused on his economic agenda and
international issues and not on domestic politics. Although Imran Khan promised
his government’s policies would lead to good days returning to Pakistan, there
are many at home and abroad who treat such promises as ‘pie in the sky’, given
the precarious state of the economy since the PTI assumed office. The
opposition on the other hand called the PM’s speech ‘anarchic, provocative, and
full of venom’. They castigated Imran Khan’s latest diatribe against their
leaders on foreign soil as an act likely to bring disrepute to the country. Imran
Khan in his speech had dilated on how, when opposition leaders were asked for
answers, they said political revenge was being exacted. The PM repeated his
leit motif charge of the opposition leaders seeking a deal to let them off the
hook. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said it
was a pity that even when representing the country abroad, it seemed the PM had
not yet come down off his container, and that Imran Khan had become a ruler,
not a leader. What Pakistan needs, he went on, is a leader who speaks not only
for himself but for all Pakistanis. If the government is bent upon doing
opposition and the opposition too does opposition, who is left to run the
country, the PPP Chairman asked rhetorically. Other comments by opposition leaders
such as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N’s) Maryam Nawaz reiterated
their stance that Imran Khan and his government were a ‘selected’ lot. Media
censorship and non-tolerance of peaceful protest were also charges the
opposition flung at the PTI government.
Some of the
things Imran Khan said in his speech rang true. For example, when he argued
that merit and merit alone could impel Pakistan forward. But such wisdom can
only resonate when it is delivered in a context of statesmanship, particularly
when representing the country abroad. Dragging domestic divisive politics into
the fray depreciates and distracts even from well meaning and well intentioned
ideas. One would have thought Imran Khan would have realized that he has ample opportunity
(every day) to make this kind of ‘container’ speech at home. What he needed to
understand was that he was addressing not just a PTI rally in Washington but in
fact speaking to the world. But going by his track record, Imran Khan is simply
repeating what he has been doing on earlier visits abroad, whether to China or
Malaysia. By painting Pakistan as a corruption-ridden country, to which he and
his party ascribe all the accumulated problems of Pakistan (almost to the
exclusion of anything else), Imran Khan is not doing any favour to the image or
interests of the country. The Washington rally was a golden opportunity to
convey to the world at large the vision of Imran Khan’s much touted ‘Naya’ (New) Pakistan that could inspire
confidence at home and abroad. Instead, the tired diatribe at the opposition
can only be seen as an opportunity missed.
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