By “It is only Khan who can steer the nation out of all troubles,” claimed Javed, a diehard fan of PTI chief Imran Khan.
“How can you say that so confidently,” I asked Javed.
“Because he is the most honest political leader in the country,” Javed asserted.
“Do you think honesty is the only trait which is required ‘to steer the nation out of all troubles,’” I tickled my friend.
“Imran Khan is charismatic, determined, educated and compassionate,” Javed counted the characteristics of Khan’s personality.
“You are forgetting about one utterly important quality, a successful politician must possess,” I said.
“What’s that?”, Javed enquired.
“Vision,” I replied.
“Oh yes, you are right, Imran Khan is a visionary too,” my friend added immediately.
“Are you sure about that,” I put another question.
“Sure about what?,” Javed asked.
“That Imran Khan literally has any political vision,” I elaborated on my question.
“What are you talking about…!!!? Of course he has a clear political vision for this country,” Javed asserted again.
“Tell me about that,” I inquired.
Javed gave me a ferocious look and responded, “Building a new and corruption free Pakistan is Imran Khan’s dream. In that ‘New Pakistan’, instead of VIP culture, justice will prevail.”
“But he has joined hands with such political figures that are not only the icons of status quo in the country, but also have strong charges of corruption against them,” I said.
“How would he purge the country from this menace of corruption with a team that already has strong tendencies towards corruption?” I tried to learn about Khan’s plan of action.
“Look, Imran Khan has no blemish of corruption on his own track record, and that is more than enough. No one can find angels in politics. But if the leader is
sincere, he will not let anyone do anything wrong.”
“You mean, those who have spent billions on his political endeavors will have no influence on his decisions when he gets power?,” I wondered.
“One always has to consider ground realities. In order to succeed in electoral politics, PTI needed ‘electables’, so he had to make some compromises,” my friend defended Imran Khan’s political decisions.
“Could you please explain this term ‘electables’?”, I requested my friend.
“Electable candidates are those powerful people who have a strong grip over their constituencies, and voters, influenced by their authority, wealth or clan; vote them, no matter what,” my friend threw light over “electables”.
I appreciated his knowledge of politics and asked, “Don’t you think that these so called ‘electables’ are the representatives of that very rotten system, Imran Khan stood against, 20 years ago?”
“In politics you cannot be an idealist.”
“What are you talking about? People supported Imran just because of those ideals he possessed once,” I criticized sharply.
“Don’t you think he has deviated, don’t you think he has gradually shunned those sincere ideological workers who stood beside him when no one else was willing to do so?,” I tossed another pinching question.
“Well, things happen in politics, despite all these issues, Imran Khan is the only hope for our country because he is an honest person,” my friend threw the same old logic in the defense of his leader.
“In my view, along with honesty, a leader must possess a stable personality, mature thought process and sound knowledge of history and regional politics.” I asserted.
“Now do you want to say that Imran Khan does not have any of these qualities?,” Javed yelled at me.
“Well without going into the details – because everyone knows about it already – making impulsive statements/decisions and then backing off is Khan’s way of politics,” I said.
“He must be an absolutely honest person but if he wants to serve this country, he needs to inculcate some political maturity as well,” I concluded.
“If deceitfulness is what you call political maturity, I assure you that Imran Khan would always prefer to remain politically naive and still would serve the country better than his rivals,” my friend concluded with a strong conviction in his leader and closed the discussion.
