The political and economic malaise of Pakistan is not the result of lack of opportunities or resources. On the contrary, the country suffers from the affliction of the dishonest leadership.Our leaders are often so far removed from people who end up looking like strangers to the people they intend to lead.
The disaster of bad leadership has created the impression that Pakistan is unable to find solutions to the problems that affect the country. The problem is not only the corrupt and deteriorated system, but also the lack of strong and capable and visionary leaders. We always complain about how bad and impracticable our political and governmental system is when we do not have a strong leader to run the affairs of our country.
This shortage of strong and able leaders as Chief Executives of the country at that time causes a collapse of the system. The system established by our founding fathers will only work if we have adequate leadership. This is the real problem that the Pakistani nation must think about. Once a nation begins to think, it is impossible to stop it and I think we can say that the Pakistani nation has begun to think.
But under a strong and competent leadership of Imran Khan the Pakistanis nation has began to think. It was his inexhaustible efforts and brilliant intelligence that drove the sleeping nation to wake up from its long lethargy and rebel against the corrupt system and the perpetrators who were sources of corruption. His job was to say what he thought and what he thought was worth saying about a new Pakistan, a Pakistan free from corruption and the breech of law, because what he said was still incomparably good and true. If some people do not understand it, it is because of the moral and ethical decadence of our society and its people under the long reign of corrupt elites and their authority of evil.
The same minutiae of Imran Khan’s victory are the pantheons of injustice in our society, caused by the divine fire of his mind which is composed of atoms more ethereal and pulsating than those of other leaders. There is no one whose mental machine is more delicate and whose balance is both more changeable and more exact. He is, perhaps, the greatest power committed and leader in Pakistan. No doubt he worked harder and accomplished more than any leader in the nation after Quaid-i-Azam. It was because he was so alive that he filled the whole nation of life. He has become the soul and essence of the younger generation, motivating them to fight for a better future. To name Imran Khan is to characterize the entire nation. It is for Pakistan both a renaissance and a reform; the mark of the revolution. He fought corruption more savagely and effectively than anyone. He is the canon who destroyed the corrupt regime.
If we judge a man for what he did, then Imran Khan is the greatest leader in Pakistan in the 21st century. Fate gave him a chance to slowly decompose the decadent era of Pakistan. He took the time to fight time, and when he got up, he was the winner of people’s minds and hearts; No leader in Pakistan has so much influence.
It was a long trip for Imran Khan. He founded his political party, the Movement for Justice of Pakistan, in 1996, and for many years he made no real progress. Many laughed at him. Journalist Guardian Declan Walsh called him a “miserable politician,” whose ideas and affiliations “slipped and slipped like a rickshaw in the pouring rain.”
The PTI made limited progress in the 2013 general election when it became the second largest party in the nation with 30 seats in parliament. In addition, Khan’s party gained control of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly the North-West Frontier Province). But none of that was enough to challenge national power.
Moreover, the amazing twist and turn in the field of ongoing political venture in Pakistan where the former Prime Minister and his daughter are being punished by NAB court for 10 years and 7 years respectively under the case of Avenfield. This deliberation has severely jolted the PML-N and their chances of victory in 2018 elections are shapely declining. This has no doubt provided a golden chance to Imran Khan to fill the vacuum. Now it depends upon the people of Pakistan that whether they really want to change their fate by abandoning the old loyalties with parties who are proven culprits of bringing corruption, injustice, sagging economy, social and moral decay, extremism, religious fundamentalism and many more to our already ailing country.
Now the scenario is quite different and Imran Khan has a whole ground to play. The campaign for the 2018 elections, considered the most important in Pakistan’s political history, has begun. Imran wants Pakistan to be a welfare state in which the state has the primary responsibility for the well-being of people in the areas of health, education, social protection, youth training, jobs, Areas of poverty. Imran by temperament has been anti-status quo and has taken extremely independent positions on foreign affairs issues. He was the first Pakistani politician to oppose the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s collaboration with US forces who argued that talks and not war were the solution to the Afghan problem, a position that was justified by current events as the world recognizes that peace through conversations is the only way forward.
A revolutionary program is adopted my Mr. Khan to capture the hearts and minds of the masses and address the most critical issues facing our nation. For Imran and PTI, the fight for a better and more prosperous Pakistan is continuing. Petty this country, and let him give a chance for the grater cause of saving Pakistan from doldrums. He might prove himself as benefactor with his revolutionary ideology. Let him come. Let him deliver.
The writer is a freelance columnist based in Quetta. He can be reached at: Asadhussainma@yahoo.com