Imran Khan’s Time Has Come, Will It Last Any Longer?

I have never been a fan of Imran Khan or his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). Moreover, I never had much trust in it becoming a major political party of Pakistan with an ability to ever have an impact. The reasons are not as much personal as much as they have got to do with my typical Pakistani personality. For one thing, PTI never struck a chord with me as an authoritative party. Having been raised in the Orient, I naturally like bossy politicians. Secondly, Imran Khan has always sounded more like an idealist amateur who does not know much about the pragmatic aspects of political life. We like shrewd up politicians who are more seasoned at dealing with the ongoing political and social system of Pakistan. Idealists are like a childish bunch to us.

However, in recent years my opinion about PTI began to change. For one thing, I had a chance to observe Imran Khan from a very close distance. And I found him to be a very humble and a courteous man. The second is that his ability to struggle is almost unequivocal. Apart from Hollywood movies, I have never really seen an example of so much human struggle in my entire life. He has been striving hard to reach the moment he is in today for the past twenty-two years. And he believed in his cause when nobody else did. If it had been any other person than him, he would have crippled, shattered and would have given in to the sheer pressure that Imran has faced in his life.

This is the moment of Imran Khan. His time has really come. His archrivals are in deep problems. And he alone, if at all, is the only hope for the democratic future of Pakistan. It is the kind of time in which he is seen as the sole celebrity in Pakistan. And if he managed things, a time may come when people would say that even if he gave his party’s ticket to a donkey, they’d vote for him. Such statements have been given before by the people of Pakistan in favor of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif.

This is one of the things that concerns me. That when that kind of a time will come on Imran Khan, how will he disburse his party’s tickets? That will mean a lot for his party. As a matter of fact, Imran has already hired a large bunch of donkeys who have been retiring from the rotting parties. If he hires more of such spent political workers, his credibility in the eyes of the public shall be compromised. And that would be catastrophic for his party. So the problem here is that how should Imran further develop his party.

The other concern that I have is that his party really does not have much penetration in the society. Even though he is revered by the people, there is much less a link between his party workers with the common man. This is something that some of the old parties such as PPP and PML-N are really good at.

So Imran should focus more on these two issues. Otherwise, no matter how much early or latter has his moment arrived, he shall fade away from the political canvas of our political landscape very quickly.