Finding Imran Khan's Umpire By Rehman Anwer

The protest of PTI against the electoral rigging of 2013 elections enters forty seventh day – one of the longest ever street protests against any government in the world. The on-going protest - continuing with a central demand to get the Prime Minister’s resignation and to have a thorough enquiry into the last elections has raised many controversies in the political arena of Pakistan. One of the most ‘controversial’ or rather ‘misunderstood’ statements that led many critics to openly denounce the whole struggle of PTI was that when the party chief, Imran Khan, said in a public speech:

“When the umpire raises his finger, the player has got to go back to pavilion”

Driven by the cynical mind-set of many of our political analysts and the government ministers, the statement was taken as a clear indication towards a potential intervention by military establishment to topple the federal government.

Pakistan has sadly experienced many military interventions and whenever such protests take place, the first impression one gets as perhaps, the Army is staging this all to find an excuse to get into power. Therefore, Imran’s umpire saga became a popular narrative that Pakistan Army and ISI are supporting him. And that the country is on the verge of another Martial Law. However, while busy in promoting this highly obnoxious narrative, the critics of Imran Khan forgot that he had been using cricket terms in politics for a long time. On numerous occasions, he used cricket terms in his election campaigns while making statements such as “PTI would clean bowled Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif” – politically of-course. Imran, with his historically shining cricket career, often uses such cricket terms to motivate his workers. But after that ‘umpire’ statement, a chain of never ending accusations started over - portraying him as a traitor. Some conspiracy theorists declared it as a well-organized plan orchestrated by the armed forces of Pakistan, intelligence services, Pakistan Awami Tahreek (PAT)’s leader - Tahir-ul-Qadri and Imran Khan. The parliament called upon its joint sessions – announcing loud and clear that Prime Minister would be unanimously and unconditionally supported and no one would be allowed to derail the democracy.

The progression of blatant lies and allegations reaches to its peak when recently a former Army chief of Pakistan, Gen (retd) Mirza Aslam Baig, alleged that the PTI’s protest is part of an international ‘great game’ involving Canada, US, Britain and Iran. His twisted and delusional statements further added the confusions and speculations to comprehend the whole situation. The General did not even realise that while making such irresponsible statements, he is putting the integrity of his own institution at risk. Also, one wonders who is going to buy this theory that international powers have nothing else to do except for conspiring against the government of Pakistan.

In Pakistan, it’s not difficult to recognize political forces and individuals who have a history of supporting Army interventions for their political gains. Such forces and individuals would never do and say a word against the military’s decisions and even the dictators who ruthlessly damaged the democratic process of Pakistan. On the contrary, Imran Khan always had a persistent stance against the military operations in Pakistan. He has, on multiple occasions, condemned all the military dictators of Pakistan and led the struggle against the last dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, when he unlawfully sacked the Chief Justice of Pakistan. If Khan’s staunch stance was only to come into power through a short cut, he could have done it ages ago.

It feels like this shockingly misinformed and confused political environment in Pakistan is designed by the forces who want to maintain the status quo - the status quo of corruption, nepotism and hypocrisy. All those who still believe that Imran Khan’s agenda is only to stumble the government of Nawaz Sharif should ask themselves if the recent Post Election Review Report published by the Election Commission of Pakistan, which clearly indicates an ‘institutionalized rigging’ in the 2013 elections, was also drafted by him and his party? Although, the Election Commission now is not owning that report saying “it is only a summary of the recommendations received from various stakeholders including international observers” – which sounds ludicrously weird for the fact that if all the major stakeholders including the international observers are questioning the transparency of the last elections and suggesting that the government machinery was used to influence the election result – is it not enough to declare the elections null and void?

Once and for all, the focus of media, civil society and politicians has to be on the systemic and organized rigging in the May 2013 elections. No ‘local’ and ‘international’ ‘umpires’ seem to be interested in this entire electoral rigging episode. The protest led by Imran Khan is a historical grass-roots level struggle to fight for the human rights of the people of Pakistan – the right to elect their own representatives in a fair manner and the right to stand up firmly against the corrupt regime – imposed on them through electoral fraud.

Rehman Anwer

The writer is a human rights activist based in London. He tweets @rehmananwer

by webmaster@insaf.pk (tkiadmin)