In Pakistan, after passing through so many stages, politics has entered an historical era of absurdity. Imran Khan, it is alleged, has the most egocentric nature in the current political arena of Pakistan. The unremitting obduracy shown by him ever since his rise in politics back in 2011 has made him a unique character of dome. His habit of listening to television programs to set up his political agenda is engendering the support of his prudent followers. Poor nominations in general elections, mantra of election rigging, four months long superfluous sit-in, boycotting assembly sessions, belligerent remarks to party heads and now capital lockdown tactics fetched embarrassing outcomes for his party. The mortals representing his party on social media have crossed all the limits of uncouthness. In fact, wishing to stay more on mass media, Imran Khan takes the help of aggressive strategies every now and then. Hence, making clumsy politics the new normal in Pakistan.
What is at the center of dispute is that Imran Khan lacks ideological convictions. The advent of PTI just before General Elections 2013 was considered as the beginning of a change in traditional politics. It was thought that Pakistan’s democracy would be fortified by inclusion of one more party that has the support of the youth and educated people. Unfortunately, all hopes were shattered when Imran Khan started promoting hatred after appalling defeat in the general elections. This hatred Khan had an avalanche effect that targeted all the other parties through Khan's blind followers.
Broadly speaking, there were three basic categories of supporters that initially started the marathon with Imran Khan: ones who were motivated by giddiness at the chaotic spectacle of his success during his sports career; second who wanted any other alternative to traditional politicians and third who wanted a well-thought-out liberal person who could end the hoax of religious and social divide in country. By now, everyone has realized that it’s not what they had assumed.
A good cricketer can’t be a good politician, he is no different to any other traditional politician and can't play the role to denounce religious narrative that previous governments were carrying.
A very unfortunate and interesting reality is that willful ignorance has become a worthwhile political brand. In Pakistan politics, Imran Khan now has the tendency to be called the first national leader to carry this brand and to ignore logic. He has successfully ruined the idea of introducing intellectualism in politics just like Trump has exhibited in America. By recent reports, sane followers of Imran continue to grow concerned about this sort of performance on the part of their leader. They never imagined Imran setting such terrible examples of unwise decisions more regularly such that it becomes a norm in the party. Politicians of other parties at the national level also seem to be engaged in a race to see who can utter the most insolently ill-informed, aggressively ignorant proclamations about the issues that governments have usually considered as critical matters.
At times, Imran’s supporters have declared PM Nawaz Sharif a close associate of Indian PM Modi who rescues his friend by creating drama on the line of control whenever PTI plans a rally or a sit-in. In normal situations, these allegations mean PM Nawaz Sharif has good relationships with a not-so-friendly neighbor, which could be unlikely for citizens of Pakistan. But the most dreadful meaning of these statements would be taken as Imran Khan having no understanding of fundamentals of Pakistan foreign policy. The political literacy and sense of civic obligation of so-called leaders of a nation comprised of 200 million people seems to have gone backwards to a point that would have stunned previous generations.
What Imran at this phase could do - to have any chance in next elections - is to revisit his aggressive approach and silly political agendas. He should bring back his sportsman spirit to politics to accept the results more open-heartedly. Best of all could be spending all the energies for betterment of province of KP that trusted in him. It is Imran who has to denounce norms of calling names on stage since he initiated all this futility in Pakistan politics. He has to nullify the normal he has set by his words and actions in recent past.