Will the real Imran please stand up?

It took him almost sixteen years but Imran Khan finally made a grand political entrance with his spectacular Oct 30 rally in Lahore. Since then he has been pulling in good crowds and establishing himself as a probable game changer — even if not an unquestionable base stealer. Even his harshest critics no longer deny him the status of an unpredictable variable in the near predictable traditional power equation. Go anywhere, urban localities in particular, and you are inevitably asked What do you think about Imran? Does he have a real chance of winning the elections? More than the questions themselves, it’s the askers’ tangible anticipation of getting a positive response that makes one wonder about the Khan phenomenon. If things appear so promising for Imran and his political outfit — yet to become a party in the real sense — why then does he face the threat of proving an unfulfilled promise?

Is Imran for real, or is he just a figment of a frustrated people’s desperate imagination? Immense public disappointment with both the PPP and the PML-N — who share the power table even though they sit on opposite ends — has catapulted Imran into the position of a distant third runner who is closing in alarmingly fast. But it seems to be more a case of the other two athletes running out of breath than Imran making an exceptional run. Indeed, his fortunes have in the past, and will in the future, remain directly linked to the misfortune of the other two players. He emerged as a distantly possible and arguably plausible alternative by sheer default and whether he manages to turn this transitory phase into a permanent state of being is now up to his own brand of perpetually ‘evolving’ politics.

Yes, tsunamis harbour the potential to destroy the most powerful of establishments but they also recede just as quickly as they rise. Ultimately, it is the sea with its immense depth that remains the perpetual force. Do Imran and his band of squabbling sycophants have the depth to translate professed ideals into practical realities? Questions abound. Is Imran a conservative liberal or a closet, born-again extremist ideologue? Has he swung from the extreme of a cricket playboy to an evangelist preacher? Who, or what, is the real Imran? The people must know. Nobody really knows where Imran stands on civil and women’s right. Does he believe in the reproductive rights accorded to women in civilised societies? Do legitimate security concerns of the state take precedence over the inherent liberties of the individual? What’s his economic plan for the country? Talking about change alone is not enough he needs to tell us how. So far, that has not happened.

Strangely, the fact that Imran has been a playboy, enjoyed fame, wealth, a high flying life style, beautiful company etc, have in a funny way added to his credibility in an otherwise conservative society. Not because people necessarily approve of his lifestyle but because they believe that since he has been there and done it all before coming into power, he may just prove a better and a safer bet than the traditional politicians who have abused public office to gain fame and fortune. But for Imran to build on this sentiment, he needs to be actually different from the other politicians. Is he? Imran’s future lies in his being associated with the promise of change, of defying the established norms to change the status quo. But of late he has been exhibiting the traits of cajoling traditional power bases and getting cosy with old faces with new ambitions. He has ridden the wave of popularity in the moderate urban citizenry but his politics increasingly reflects rather rigid right wing priorities. And this could perhaps be his biggest mistake In a bid to capture the perceived ‘overwhelmingly conservative’ vote bank, he may be drifting away from, and isolating, his core constituency of moderate and liberal followers.

Ours may be an essentially moderate conservative society but it is not an extremist fundamentalist one. Past electoral results alone prove the fallacy of this perception. The disruptive and destructive powers of the noisy few must not be confused with an unassailable relevance in the numbers game called democracy. Imran cannot turn up at the seminar of an extremist forum like the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (Defy Pakistan would be a more appropriate epitaph), lend it credibility, and then expect to be let off the hook in the name of “engaging” different schools of thought. Imran needs to differentiate between ideological variants and elements espousing violent, extremist views elements that not only pose an existential threat to the country but are pushing it in the direction of becoming a pariah in the global arena.

More important than what his professed disagreements may be with forums like the DPC, we need to know what is the commonality of his viewpoint with them, even if on a single agenda item. Imran cannot run with the liberal hare and hunt with the extremist hound.

Torn by internal strife and the ongoing tussle between the old guard and the new Turks, all PTI party offices have been rendered vacant and the party is in the midst of a complete overhaul. According to the PTI’s own plans, its membership drive should end in June and elections to all party offices (excluding the chairman’s, we believe) are scheduled for October. Now here’s the catch. If the elections are called for October this year (highly unlikely) then Imran simply does not have a functioning party organisation on ground. If general elections are announced for January/February 2013, and assuming party offices have been staffed in October as planned, even then the party would have a mere 12 to 16 weeks to match the prohibitive combined might of seasoned electoral juggernauts like the PPP and PML-N. And we’re talking only electoral tactical here, and not other armoury like people friendly-budgets and the PPP and PML-N abusing their incumbency privileges and flexing their political muscle. Add to this the internal feuds of the winners and losers in the party offices and the PTI picture looks even murkier.

The first test of Imran Khan therefore is the prompt and efficient management of his party affairs before vying for a chance to set the country right. Indeed, it’s time for Imran to cut down on rhetoric and beef up on specifics. He needs to come across as someone who knows what he is talking about. Headline-grabbing generalities must give way to specifics. Just to cite one example, speaking on governance, Imran once said that if the PTI came into power, it would not be dependent on the bureaucracy, nor would it “waste time listening to their suggestions.” The civil service is akin to a body’s skeletal frame, providing the state the necessary support for its institutions to function. How he can eliminate corruption in “19 days and terrorism in 90” without state functionaries is a marvel Imran needs to explain. Anyone wanting to lead a country should be talking about improving its civil service instead of shunning it. Also, maybe its time for Imran to also share with the terrorism-fatigued nation how exactly he will do it all in 90 days.

And talking of corruption and duplicitous morals, Imran must maintain the highest standards himself and would be well advised to take a closer look at the shenanigans of those close to him. There is already talk of a senior member involved in a fraudulent land deal of another billionaire party leader reneging on the promise to build a school in the name of a student, the only child of his parents who died because of his school’s negligence. And this is just the beginning. If Imran is serious about championing change in the country then he needs to change many things around him, and about him.