Imran Khan: Check yourself before you wreck yourself!

Imran Khan: Check yourself before you wreck yourself!

Imran Khan is a dying phenomenon. He seems to be losing the fan base that he had gathered up in the last five to six years. His supporters and voters seem to be losing hope in him and the young generation, especially first-time voters, feel like they have been left in limbo with nowhere else to go.
There was nothing surprising about Imran’s ascent in the political arena. People were tired of the same old faces, the same broken promises and needed a new ideal to latch on to. Consequently, most people followed Imran blindly, without giving any consideration to his political agenda and his views on important national issues. They gave him a ‘prophetical’ status, rallied for him, enrolled in the ‘Tabdeeli Razakar’ program and did what any patriotic Pakistani would have done. However, what the patriots did not realise was that the hype around Imran would soon fizzle out and things would go back to ground zero.
The recent wave of terrorism in the country and constant threats by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that they will continue with their activities until negotiations are initiated, is very alarming. This has put the government on a back foot and increasingly it seems that the government will have to hold talks on the militants’ terms, rather than keeping national security as their top priority.
Perhaps Imran and his supporters need to travel back in time and assess when things started falling apart.
Flash back
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was making waves and both, the young and old were flocking together to join the latest craze that was Imran Khan. He won the hearts of many with his charisma, fiery speeches, promises for a better Pakistan and open challenges to Mian Sahib and Zardari. He ignited political fervour in the rural areas as well as the urban;  in the young as well as the old; in the illiterate as well as the educated.
Attending a PTI jalsa became the thing to do and people did. PTI supporters wreaked havoc on social media too and a word against Imran would bring a barrage of insults your way. Then came May 11, 2013, when people woke up with hope in their eyes and patriotism in their hearts. Pakistani expatriates flew all the way to Pakistan to cast votes in favour of PTI and Imran, hoping for a change. He was claimed to be the only saviour for this nation.
Where did things go wrong?
It is now clear that Imran Khan lacks political foresight and flexibility. His first major mistake was to lock horns with none other than the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). A little understanding, seat adjustment and alliance with the largest political party in Karachi could have given PTI a chance to establish itself and implement its manifesto which, by the way, was very much in line with the manifesto of MQM.
Imran was over-confident and thoroughly mistaken in assuming that he would be an overnight success in Karachi alone. Rigging or no rigging, PTI failed to cause any considerable dent in the vote bank of MQM, and the following by-elections, under surveillance of the army, gave credence to the fact that PTI was losing its popularity fast in this part of Pakistan.
His second crucial blunder was to team up with the Taliban and support their recent demand for opening up offices for the militants. His main stream followers are mostly educated elite and students, who cannot under any circumstances support this stance; and this is fast causing a slump in his popularity.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), where PTI enjoys complete control, has seen no improvement and there seems to be no proper road map laid down by the chief minister and his team. Instead, the blood-thirsty Taliban are being given an opportunity to further implement their agendas.
What makes matters worse is that Imran Khan is running the show as a dictator, and even his own party members are not privy to his policies and decisions. Just recently, a statement made by Khan regarding the opening of a Taliban office has been completely disowned by his party memberAsad Umar who claimed that this was a personal wish of the Khan, and does not reflect the party’s official view.
Imran Khan who once rallied against nepotism, is now giving priority to the relatives and friends of main stream PTI leaders over common workers, for different party positions. it seems that PTI has become like any conventional Pakistani political party where affiliations are preferred over merit.
The recent attacks in Peshawer - the church blast, followed by an attack on the employees of the secretariat – speak volumes about the kind of administrative strength PTI has over the affairs of the KPK province right now.
Suggestions for damage control
It is obvious that PTI needs damage control and needs it fast. Instead of crying over rigged cases, Imran needs to focus on good governance in the KPK province, and he needs to re-consider his stance on negotiations with militants. His own supporters are sceptical of his statements and actions, and have very recently started expressing their disappointment in him openly on public forums. One such status on Facebook reads:
“I’m disappointed in Imran Khan’s demand for an office for Taliban. Seems like my vote just went to waste.”

Qisaa khawani blast


 
http://express.com.pk/images/NP_LHE/20130930/Sub_Images/1101975012-2.gif

Armed groups begin patrolling Peshawar streets

Armed groups begin patrolling Peshawar streets



PESHAWAR: After increasing influence in the limits of Badaber and Matani police stations, armed groups have started patrolling the streets in Sarband and Pishtakhara areas to set the alarm bells ringing in the provincial capital.

“A large number of armed people, suspected to be militants, have recently started patrolling the streets in the limits of Sarband and Pishtakhara police stations. Their movement has panicked the residents of the villages located close to the boundary with Khyber Agency,” a source told The News.

The source said the groups operating in the areas are also targeting Hayatabad and University Road where not only the incidents of kidnapping have increased but a few houses were also bombed and hit with rockets in the last few days. The area is without a supervisory officer as its deputy superintendent of police (DPS) was transferred due to political pressure by a local politician for refusing his ‘illegal orders’.

The militants have already increased their influence in the limits of the Matani and Badaber police stations, causing a serious threat to the towns on both sides of the Kohat-Peshawar Road. The towns in the two police stations have witnessed hundreds of attacks by the militants from the nearby Khyber Agency and Darra Adamkhel during the last several years.

There are reports that the activities of the armed groups have also increased in the urban areas, including Gulbahar, Faqirabad,Yakatoot, Bhanamari and Mathra. Kidnappings, calls for ransom, robberies and other crimes are on the rise in the limits of all these police stations as well as the rest of the city.

The city witnessed a large number of target killings in the past few months. However, the groups involved in these attacks were busted last month, bringing down the number of the targeted attacks.

Peshawar had witnessed a similar situation a few years ago when armed groups were active all over the provincial metropolis. They carried out attacks in the urban and cantonment areas of the city before making their escape back to the tribal areas.

The spokesman for the capital city police, Waqar Ahmad, rejected reports about the patrolling of the militants in the limits of Peshawar. “The Sarband as well as the Badaber and Matani areas are fully under the control of police,” said the spokesman.

About the crimes in the rest of the city, the police spokesman said a number of rings involved in calls for extortion as well kidnapping and robberies were busted recently.

However, a late night attack on a masjid in Achini village in the limits of Sarband police station speaks volumes of the increasing influence of the militants in the area. At least three persons were killed and 20 injured when the armed men attacked the Pirano Masjid in the village with hand grenade and automatic weapons late Thursday night.

The FIR of the incident was lodged on Friday in the Sarband Police Station. There were reports that a search operation was also carried out in the area, during which over a dozen suspects were held.

The area is located close to the boundary with Khyber Agency. There were reports that the police were hesitant to reach the spot and rescue the wounded. The wounded were shifted to the hospital by the villagers.


Peshawar Bomb Blast charsada road

http://express.com.pk/images/NP_LHE/20130929/Sub_Images/1101974163-1.gif

Bomb Blast in Qissa Khawani bazar




http://www.express.pk/story/180579/

پشاور: قصہ خوانی بازار دھماکے کے جاں بحق افراد میں ایک ہی خاندان کے 18 افراد بھی شامل ہیں۔
پشاور کے قصہ خوانی بازار میں خان رازق شہید پولیس اسٹیشن کے سامنے ہونے والے بم دھماکے میں 40 افراد جاں بحق ہوئے جن میں 18 کا تعلق ایک ہی خاندان سے ہے، چارسدہ کے علاقے شبقدر سے تعلق رکھنے والا یہ بدقسمت خاندان اپنے عزیزوں کو شادی کی دعوت دینے کے لئے پشاور میں آیا تھا لیکن انہیں کیا پتہ تھا کہ پشاور میں انہیں خوشیوں کے بجائے جنازوں کا تحفہ ملے گا۔
دھماکے کے وقت بدقسمتی سے یہ خاندان اسی جگہ خریداری میں مصروف تھا جسے دہشتگردوں نے اپنی بربریت کا نشانہ بنانے کا منصوبہ بنایا تھا، یہ بدقسمت خاندان اپنے کڑیل جوان کندھوں کے علاوہ 6 بچوں اور 2 خواتین سے بھی ہمیشہ کے لئے محروم ہوگیا۔
واضح رہے کہ گزشتہ 8 روز میں پشاور کے مختلف علکاقوں میں ہونے والے بم دھماکوں میں 130 افراد جاں بحق ہوگئے ہیں جن میں خواتین اور بچے بھی شامل ہیں۔

Smuggling in broad daylight

For me PoTI is Imran Khan

PTI is a fraud PARTY where party constitution is IMRAN KHAN

PTI distances itself from Imran's Taliban office statement

http://dawn.com/news/1045600
\
ISLAMABAD: A lawmaker for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Thursday said that party chief Imran Khan's recent statement on Pakistani Taliban was not an official PTI policy statement.
Asad Umar, a lawmaker for Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI), stated in a conference that the idea for establishing an office for peacetalks with the Taliban was not an official party policy. He added that the statement only reflected the personal views of the PTI leader.
Umar added that it was wrong to criticise those who wished to use peacetalks as a way to fight the rampant terrorism in the country and come to terms with the terrorists. However, he added that peacetalks go hand in hand with cooperation from the other side.
Umar declared that it was a weakness to insist on peacetalks if terror attacks continued, saying that it was unfair to the country.
Earlier, Imran Khan had stated that it was imperative to have a political office for the Taliban where peacetalks between the government and the Taliban could be held. He insisted that the absence of such an office would hinder negotiations, assisting in the continuation of the decade-long war against terror.
He also referred to the Afghan Taliban office in Qatar officiated by the United States (US) government to facilitate the dialogue process some months prior, stressing that the government should take negotiations seriously.

Governments aint cricket


Naseem Zehra and Murtaza Solangi on the abusive language of PTI followers


PTI is not a PARTY its a CULT


Nadeem Paracha Response on PTIs SHAH Farmaan Statement


پشاور: سرکاری ملازمین کی بس میں دھماکا، 3 افراد جاں بحق، 20 سے زائد زخمی

http://urdu.geo.tv/UrduDetail.aspx?ID=120078

پشاور … پشاور کے چارسدہ روڈ پر سرکاری ملازمین کی بس میں دھماکے سے 3 افراد جاں بحق اور خواتین سمیت 20 سے زائد افراد زخمی ہوگئے، ہلاکتوں میں اضافے کا خدشہ ہے۔ پولیس نے چارسدہ روڈ پر سول سیکریٹریٹ کی بس میں دھماکے کی تصدیق کرتے ہوئے بتایا ہے کہ واقعے میں 2 افراد جاں بحق ہوگئے جبکہ 15 افراد زخمی ہیں۔ نمائندہ جیو نیوز کے مطابق چارسدہ روڈ پر سرکاری ملازمین سے بھری بس کو دھماکے میں نشانہ بنایا گیا جس میں 60 سے 70 افراد سوار تھے، لیڈی ریڈنگ اسپتال میں 22 زخمی اور 3 افراد کی لاشیں لائی گئیں زخمیوں میں خواتین بھی شامل ہیں، جبکہ 10 زخمیوں کو چارسدہ ڈسٹرکٹ ہیڈ کوارٹر اسپتال لایا گیا۔ 

Fake degree of PTI MPA | Shamelessness Continues !!

http://tribune.com.pk/story/610156/pti-mpas-degree-declared-fake-re-elections-to-be-held-in-pk-50/

ABBOTABAD: The degree of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Yousaf Ayub Khan has been declared fake, Express News reported on Friday.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has declared him ineligible, and has ordered re-elections in PK-50.
Yousaf Ayub was Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) candidate in PK-50 Haripur-2, he was elected as a member of the provincial assembly in the 2013 general elections.
He won the PK-50 election with 35,117 votes and the runner up was Independent candidate Qazi Muhammad Asad Khan with 32,879 votes.
Ayub was also Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) minister for communication and works.
Other cases of fake degrees
On September 24, former Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Bashir Ahmed was sentenced to two years in prison as his degree was found to be fake by a court in Badin. He was also fined Rs5,000.
Bashir Ahmed was a PPP member of parliament from PS-56 in the former Sindh government.
Previously, three elected legislators fell prey to fake degree cases in July, when the Supreme Court suspended the membership of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf parliamentarian Ghulam Sarwar Khan and de-notified the membership of two Punjab provincial assembly members for holding fake degrees.
The Supreme Court also declared Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid MPA Samina Khawar Hayat ineligible in July after she contested elections on a fake BBA degree.

Dear Mighty...

Dear Mighty Khan / Kaptaan / Übermensch,
Greetings from an ancient admirer, a long-time fan and a member of the species you call ‘liberal scum.’
Back in 1992 when you led the Pakistan cricket team to its first World Cup victory and made that narcissistic speech after the final, I used to work as a reporter and feature-writer for a local English weekly.
While most of the country’s press was wagging its collective finger at you for being selfish and arrogant, I defended you in a series of articles, in spite of the fact that (eventually) you were brave enough to admit that you made a mistake in taking all the credit for the victory as your team mates stood there, scratching their heads and maybe waving at you to remind you of their existence. ‘Hey, skipper, remember us!’
Being a fan, I was extremely excited when (in the mid-1990s) you decided to join politics and form your own party – even though I must admit, I was kind of apprehensive when I saw you hanging out with General (R) Hamid Gul.
I know that liberal scumbags criminally undermine General Gul’s role in wisely and prudently utilising the big American Dollar and the Saudi Riyal to deliver a crushing defeat to an atheistic superpower that was known to eat Muslim babies, but to fans like me, a dashing Khan just didn’t augur very well with a foaming, wrinkled Gul.
I know I might be sounding a tad disrespectful of a hero like Gul, but time and history can be a cruel combination because the only Gul that really matters now is Umar Gul and he too, has lost form.
But, alas, call it a mischievous itch, I did quite enjoy how you eventually ended up completely peeving Gul and leaving him in an existentialist lurch when you decided to marry a Caucasian British national whose father was a wealthy Jew.
If ever there was a starker physical expression of irony, it manifested itself across Gul’s angry face when he heard the news. I remember him telling journalists how disappointed he was. The protégé had slipped away.
I told my cynical friends that this act proved that Khan Saab was still the guy we cheered for across his cricketing career; the same guy we had thought was the most inspirational and intelligent thing ever to happen to the post of captaincy in Pakistan cricket.
Some of my friends called me a fool when one day in 1997 I decided to donate half of my monthly salary to the cancer hospital you had set up in Lahore.
They asked me, ‘have you heard him speak, lately?’ They didn’t like how you had started to sound: Like an angry, self-righteous reactionary, or, as one of my friends had put it, ‘like Hamid Gul on amphetamines!’
Humbug, I thought. What did that have to do with the cancer hospital, right? So off I went to the post office with my donation tucked inside an envelope, addressed to the administration of the hospital. I felt good.
Incidentally, that same evening I picked up a copy of The Friday Times and was thrilled to see a full-page article on you. I cringed, gritted my teeth, clenched my fists and tried to look away but just couldn’t ignore some of the things that you had said in the quotes that the article had used.
You went on and on about ‘servile brown sahibs’, ‘the drugged out, decadent and liberal youth culture of the West,’ the evilness and corruption of people like Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, the glory of faith and how you rediscovered it.
I tried to understand you as being like most urban middle-class Pakistani men who, after spending a good part of their lives in the most flamboyant and colourful manner, suddenly ‘rediscover the wonders of faith’ the moment they hit middle-age.
Fair enough, I thought, but what really bothered me was how instead of keeping such noble spiritual re-discoveries to themselves, they make it a point to exhibit it and flaunt it as a tool to judge other men.
‘Big boys play at night.’ I’m sure you finally burned this filthy T-Shirt!
‘Big boys play at night.’ I’m sure you finally burned this filthy T-Shirt!
But you weren’t just another Pakistani. You were Imran Khan. And while I was reading that article also I kept wondering: What was a proud brown Pakistani like you doing behaving like a ‘servile brown sahib’ by marrying an opulent Caucasian Westerner? I mean, not that it ever bothered me, but couldn’t you have found a proud brown Pakistani woman?
Even then, I didn’t really get your angry, dismissive dig at the decadent, druggie youth culture of the West. Weren’t you (and still are) great friends with rock star Mick Jagger and actor Peter O’Toole – two of the most prominent purveyors of exactly the kind of culture you were decrying?
Did you tell them how decadent and disgusting their lifestyles were in the 1960s and 1970s? I’m sure you didn’t. But you had no qualms in telling us – the ones who live in a country where the only culture (since the late 1970s) that mushroomed was the one in which men were encouraged to use religion to meet cynical political ends and as a weapon against those they deemed to be ‘bad Muslims’ or downright infidels.
What is the druggie, decadent Jagger doing in the Land of the Pure?
What is the druggie, decadent Jagger doing in the Land of the Pure?
You being my idol, I wondered who you were addressing. I believed in the same God as you did and shared the same faith. Yes, I wasn’t (and still am not) quite into the ritualistic bit of our faith (as you now are), but does that make me a lesser Muslim than you?
And if you weren’t talking to people like me, then who? Ninety-eight per cent of Pakistanis are Muslim and ever since the 1980s, a majority of them love wearing their faith on their sleeves.
But then I understood. And you helped me understand. And it happened only recently when I read your last book, ‘Pakistan: A Personal History.’
I didn’t agree with a lot of things you mediated upon in the book, but (as always) I admired your honesty – especially when you confessed that you had very little knowledge of what went on in Pakistani politics and society during the Ziaul Haq dictatorship in the 1980s.
Well, as a busy cricketer you could escape the sight of public floggings, the midnight arrests, the myopia and the religious bigotry of the era, but most Pakistanis couldn’t.
Many Pakistanis readjusted their spiritual and political dispositions to fit in the new paradigm of acceptance, whereas those who didn’t, suffered all kinds of hardships.
How could you have missed this?
How could you have missed this?
It was fine to be naïve about such matters as a travelling sportsman (especially if one was as good as you were), but this naïveté (or the sudden, late realisation of certain disturbing moments of Pakistan’s history) can become a problem for a politician.
Now, here you are, leading Pakistan’s third largest political party and basking in the admiration of thousands of young Pakistanis as an ideological icon but with perhaps only a superficial knowledge of your own country’s history.
After reading your confessional book I just can’t help but wonder exactly how much do you really know about or comprehend the things you are so very vocal about: Faith, corruption, drone attacks, ‘Pushtun traditions,’ economy …
Just like most Pakistanis, your grip on history is weak because in our country, half-truths and myths are taught as historical fact.
After all, your ideological mentors, like General Gul and Jamat-i-Islami (JI) are the kind of folks who see the country and the world exactly through the kind of eyes that stare back at us every time we open the history books that are in circulation across Pakistan’s educational institutions.
Have your sons ever gone through such a book? I don’t think so. They’ll grow up in the UK as wise lads, with an education that is designed to help students understand the world in a rational, creative and practical manner; they’ll never experience an education that was solely constructed to promote a myopic ideology.
I was quite pleased when you talked about educational reforms before the 2013 election. I thought who else but the Mighty Khan can rid our text books of all that is designed to turn young minds into robotic, reactionary pulp.
But I should have known. Why would you? I mean, this pulp is what one comes across if he or she even tries to rationally interact with your most ardent supporters in the social media.
E=MC2 becomes E=@@$%$$#@&&^$#@!
Have you ever heard them speak? Many of them make reactionaries of yore sound like soft-spoken underlings, and one is not sure whether he is interacting with an urbane middle-class young person or a rabid incoherent bigot.
Your party’s trolls are scary, Khan Saab.
Your party’s trolls are scary, Khan Saab.
But your government in the KP did initiate those much talked-about education reforms. However, instead of going forward, your government decided to go backwards. Reverse swing, I guess?
The last ruling party in KP, the ANP, had edited out certain verses on Jihad, believing that when taken out of context they would generate confusion and even make many young people misunderstand Islam.
But, instead of at least gazing at your navel about this argument, you dismissed ANP’s manoeuvre as something done by a diabolic batch of corrupt and evil secularists, and gave a free hand to your education ministry to put those verses right back in.
‘These verses would clear the confusion about Jihad in young people’s minds,’ said the ministry. I’ve gone through those verses over and over again and they are put there without any context. So tell me, how is this act of your government any different than the act of extremists cherry-picking the same verses (out of context) to justify their violence against the state, government and people of Pakistan?
Every Muslim Pakistani kid gets ample religious education at home, doesn’t he? And if you are so hell-bent on putting verses on Jihad in school text books, why not also put verses on tolerance and the pursuit of knowledge that run across the holy book are far simpler to comprehend by young minds than the more complex ones on Jihad?
I’ve never called you ‘Taleban Khan.’ And I don’t plan to now. I am sure you truly believe that the war against extremist groups can be won through talks and dialogue.
But, as you often say, it’s ‘not our war’, I have wondered on whose behalf would we be talking to the militants?
It’s America’s war, right? So would we be talking on the behalf of the scheming Americans? Have they asked us to? And why should we?
I’m kind of confused here. You say it’s not our war and yet it is Pakistani soldiers, cops and civilians dying in it, being killed by men who are also Pakistani.
You do have an answer, though, and you keep repeating it: Those Pakistanis who are killing other Pakistanis are the guys whose families were hit by US drone strikes. In anger and desperation they have picked up arms.

Okay, but against whom have these victims of American brutality picked up arms?
Against unarmed people praying in mosques, shrines and churches? Against women and children in markets? Against the Pakistan army and police? Against teenaged school girls?
Did these people operate secret US drones from a church in Peshawar?
Did these people operate secret US drones from a church in Peshawar?
Oh, of course, this is so because we as a nation are fighting America’s war. Let’s say that we were, but over the years, hasn’t it become squarely our own war?
Over 50,000 Pakistanis killed since 2002. They’d have to be living in Guatemala for anyone to say that this doesn’t make it Pakistan’s war.
However, you are right to ask that if the US is willing to hold talks with extremists in Afghanistan, why the Pakistanis shouldn’t be allowed to do the same with those haunting the mountains, caves and cities of Pakistan.
But whereas, the conniving Americans are doing so to negotiate a safe exit for its occupying forces in Afghanistan, what would we be negotiating for?
Are we an occupying force? Is our military an occupying force in the north-west of Pakistan? Should we negotiate its safe exit first from KP so the extremists are free to do whatever they like, first in the KP, then in the rest of Pakistan?
Will we be negotiating that ‘bad Muslims’ be allowed to at least settle on the shorelines of Gawadar and Karachi? Or should we grow gills and find an underwater city of infidels in the Arabian Sea?
I am all for peace talks, Khan Saab. We are all for peace. Who in his or her right mind wouldn’t be?
But so far it’s just been one-way traffic. The state and government alone has been talking about peace. And what are they getting in return?
Suicide bombings on men, women and children. IED explosions against senior military officers and soldiers.
Obviously, as you pointed out, these acts are the doing of those who want to derail the peace talks. May we know who these saboteurs are?
Americans, Indians, Afghans, or maybe the ANP? Kindly do inform confused Pakistanis like me.
You did say that ANP was politicising issues like suicide blasts. Well, I guess, they shouldn’t, but you most certainly can on issues like drone strikes, right?
After all, you are the mighty Khan who has always taken the higher moral ground. That’s exactly why Western press spews fact after fact on corrupt hyenas like Zardari and Sharif and mobsters like Altaf Hussain, but you only make news when you attend a charity ball by a British royal to save endangered elephants.
Oh, how we wish the 81 Christians who were slaughtered by extremists in a churchin Peshawar last Sunday were elephants as well.
They’re most certainly an endangered species, just like sanity in this country.
So, can you ask Prince Charles to hold a charity ball for this as well?
Thanks.
Your fan (as opposed to a foulmouthed fanatic),
Nadeem.

Blogroll