PTI in ideological wilderness

[VetDoctor]

PTI in ideological wilderness
Ghazi Salahuddin

In a week that was marked by incidents of suicide bombings and targeted killings, I was astonished – and saddened – by a statement made in the sanctified environment of the National Assembly. “I demand that Malik Mumtaz Qadri be freed immediately”, the MNA from Mardan, Mujahid Ali Khan, said during Thursday’s session.
Mujahid Ali Khan is one of the new faces that Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has ushered into the lower house, promising a new beginning in the affairs of the state. So, is this the foretaste of the ‘tabdeeli’ that is supposed to have inspired the youth of this country?
To be sure, this was not a policy statement on behalf of the party. It seemed to have come as a surprise for other members of the PTI and it was clarified by another member of the party that the elected representative from Mardan had made this demand in his personal capacity, adding that the party’s policy “will remain under the country’s law and constitution”.
A PTI press release issued later reiterated the same stance: that it was Mujahid Ali’s personal view and the party is committed to upholding the law and the constitution. A milder clarification would be hard to draft. There was no hint of any reprimand or sincere regrets. It is significant that when the statement was made in the National Assembly, no immediate rebuttal was made by a senior leader of the party by way of damage control.
Instead, one newspaper reported that “Mujahid Ali said that he will not retract his statement and clearly conveyed this to his party leadership”. There should be little doubt that he feels strongly about what he has said. We know that there are people in this country who passionately approve of the crime that Mumtaz Qadri had committed, irrespective of the fact that Qadri was duty-bound to protect the very person he had killed.
What is relevant here is that someone who idolises Mumtaz Qadri was formally given the PTI ticket to contest the election from NA-11, Mardan III. We were told that the PTI had a meticulous system to choose its candidates. It is not conceivable that Mujahid Ali Khan would have impersonated as someone he is not to get the PTI ticket.
However, there was always some confusion about the PTI’s ideological bearings and the kind of mosaic that it has fabricated is remarkable in the sense that it can attract supporters who would otherwise be on the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Before the elections, when I had the opportunity to gauge the inclinations of the people, I was amused to find ardent supporters of the Taliban from the working class rooting as enthusiastically for Imran Khan as did the emancipated and highly literate ladies of the upper middle class.
At the heart of this somewhat schizophrenic character of the party was the ambiguity that Imran Khan himself has personified. His charismatic appeal is not to be doubted. Because of what a charismatic leadership can do in a society deeply afflicted with grave crises, he could have been a gift of God for Pakistan. The following that he has is the least that he could get together with just his appearance and personal magic. But what is his vision, his worldview? How can he invite a Mujahid Ali Khan to sit at the same table with, say, an Asad Umar?
In fact, a picture gallery of the PTI leaders – with the most prominent of them retaining the wrinkles of their past affairs – will leave you guessing about the collective image of the party. Anyhow, one dominant strain in this collage is Imran Khan’s focus on drone attacks and his assertion that terrorist activities in Pakistan, mainly of the Taliban, are the result of Pakistan’s involvement in America’s war. Though there is a lot of sense in how he presents his case, he seems unwilling to recognise the impact of the dark passions, mainly emanating from religious extremism, that have been invested in our polity.
These passions cannot simply evaporate with a shift in our strategic thinking or security policies. Mujahid Ali Khan’s remarks, coming almost out of the blue, underline this reality in a striking manner. Mumtaz Qadri operated in a realm that is far from the territory in which the Taliban operate. His fanatical action had no connection with what is happening in the tribal areas and in the province that is now in the charge of the PTI.
There was general expectation that with the new setup, the tempo of terrorist violence in the province would decrease. After all, the PTI had adopted a conciliatory policy towards the Taliban. I am particularly reminded of a speech that the designated chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had made on May 17 in which he had “requested” the Taliban to cooperate. “This is your province, this is your country... we do not want to fight with anyone, we want peace”, he had rambled.
Alas, there has been no peace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or in other disturbed areas. The latest suicide bombing was staged in Peshawar itself on Friday when at least 15 people were killed in what was clearly another sectarian attack. Karachi, already bleeding profusely, suffered an exceptional blow on the same day when an MQM member of the Sindh Assembly and his son were gunned down when they emerged out of a mosque after Friday prayers. The Taliban claimed responsibility for this attack, demonstrating their reach across the country.
It was observed that the present ministers of the provincial government are not as visible on the scenes of carnage as those of the previous ANP government, even when they were themselves under attack and had suffered severe losses in human terms. One KP minister picked up the refrain that the war on terror had been imposed on Pakistan and called upon the federal government to disown this war to save the country.
But so much more, on so many different fronts, has to be done to save Pakistan. The drone attacks have nothing to do with the bombing of the girls’ schools by the Taliban or with the attacks against the Hazara community in Quetta. In the present context, the drone attacks or the war on terror did not motivate Mumtaz Qadri to assassinate Salmaan Taseer and perhaps Mujahid Ali Khan knows as much.
We must be worried about how Mumtaz Qadri is venerated as a hero by so many people, including by an elected member of the National Assembly of a party aspiring to create a ‘Naya Pakistan’. So, what would the PTI want to disown – one of its members or the promise of a ‘Naya Pakistan’?
The writer is a staff member
Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com

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