Opinion Articles

The Insaf Students Federation and LUMS students arranged a lecture with Imran Khan on 4^th February 2012. The Venue was jam packed with students, faculty at LUMS, senior Lahore PTI members, residents of DHA, and parents of students. The ambience: electric, mood: overwhelming, the passion of Pakistan: in their hearts. The wave of alteration: Charging ahead with an ever strong velocity.

This is a response to the article that appeared on 22nd November 2011 in 'The Nation' by Mr. Sikander Shaheen.

"Pakistan seems to be changing through Imran's Popularity" reports the WP

 In the process, the institutions that provide the pillars on which the state edifice is built have crumbled and the spirit and drive that they generate has given way to ceaseless lust to work for personal aggrandisement. Imran and PTI stand for reversing that. 

Pakistan has survived a self-inflicted bloodbath for over a decade, or has it? This is a question that continually rattles the mind in the wake of the US entourage’s arrival in the country with a body language that is nowhere close to being friendly and a message that can only get Pakistan sucked in deeper into the quagmire.

Imagine Altaf Hussain proclaiming that the real reason behind the threat to dissolve the provincial assembly is the growing popularity of his party in Punjab. Or Nawaz Sharif rushing repeatedly to Sindh when Punjab, his political bastion, grossly afflicted with widespread corruption and ill-governance, is literally ‘drowning’ in the dengue epidemic. Or the Chaudhrys of PML-Q clamouring innocence and discounting the widely-held perception that they joined the government to save their tottering political dynasty.

Raoof Hasan's weekly column in Pakistan Today

The increasing number of news articles and columns from renowned journalists in recent times show the turning tide towards PTI.

It is a combination of perceptible predictability and an eerie unpredictability that characterise the political and security environment prevailing in the country. The predictability factor relates to the manner in which the political mafias have indulged in wanton loot of the country’s riches, deprived the people of their inherent right to security and rendered the system corrupt and completely untenable. But the grave challenges this multi-faceted rampage is likely to throw up for the country’s sovereign existence remain predominantly a matter of conjecture.

Writer Atta-ul-Haq Qasmi wrote an article on ASG Saifullah Khan Nizai's response. Published in Daily Jang

 The announcement of the holding the All Parties Conference (APC) was followed by a spate of speculation as to its motives and possible outcome. There was a general consensus that nothing substantial should be expected as, primarily, the congregation was meant to be an exercise in semantics and no critical policy shift was planned.

 It is a widely held belief that if free and fair elections were held in Pakistan today, there is a great chance that PTI would emerge as a clear winner. Different independent polls put the popularity of Imran Khan, the leader of PTI, well above leadership of PPP and PML(N). Fair elections could put PTI in solid position to form next government. Interests of common people have been always been neglected by previous governments. People are sick and tired of same old faces and their unfair policies. They are looking towards PTI as alternate leadership. As the time for elections nears, voters are beginning to question what solutions PTI offers. They want to know what PTI stands for and how PTI policies will benefit their lives and their families. Most importantly they want to know about the social and economic policies of PTI.  

Imran Khan has always confronted the proverbial question in whatever he has set out to do: will he make it? That was the question when his team was losing in the earlier stages of the world cup of 1992, but he was the proud recipient of the coveted trophy at the concluding ceremony. The same was the haunting question when he launched “Imran’s Tigers” to build a cancer hospital in memory of his mother.

"We'll win the next election," Khan insists, in characteristically self-assured tones. "There's going to be a very strong movement behind us. I can already sense it."

 I wish the enlightened writer had made the effort to go through the PTI website to develop an informed knowledge base before taking the initiative of writing a scathing critique. Had he gone through the vision, manifesto, constitution, lists of spokespersons and some of the articles on the blog, his conclusions would have been different. Opinion writers are not supposed to have a free run with non-verifiable statements and their contents should be double-checked for correctness and accuracy.

 The question is if and how Imran Khan will convert these changes into a political advantage in the next parliamentary elections. My gut feeling is he will. He has energy, commitment and popular appeal. The great kaptaan presents a very clear agenda of change that no other leader or party can match. Change, credibility and popular appeal will define the new politics of Pakistan, which the kaptaanrepresents.

He (Imran Khan) has sought to fulfil the long-voiced demand of a programme from him by coming up with a 100-day crash plan on reforming Pakistan.

Ghulam Akbar's rejoined to recent article by Nusrat Javed in Daily Express

This refers to the article “Immy, tell us what you want” by Dr. Manzur Ijaz carried in the June 29 edition of your paper.

Virginia, USA: The international community has listened to the voice of PTI Chairman Imran Khan's advice that drone and military aggression is not the solution.  Drone and Military strategy of the US/NATO will fail to win peace, and most importantly, hearts and minds of the Tribal people of FATA and Waziristan, Pakistan. 

This column was published in Daily aman on 19th June,2011

  Army bashing

 Recent events in and around Pakistan have widened the fissures within a fragmenting Pakistani society. Sensationalism combined with opaqueness in policy has contributed to speculation and rumours mill tearing at the seams. If tweets, blogs and views of an educated liberal class of Pakistanis are a measure, the events are certainly taking Pakistan to the gallows with testimonies from our very own.

Rejoinder to Irfan Siddiqui on his current article in Daily Jang by Rizwan Chauhdry

Chairman Imran Khan's article in The News & Daily Jang (23rd Apr 2011)

Dr. Humayuan's article in Daily Nawa-i-waqt

Somehow it has happened. The long-and-often-ridiculed PTI’s founder and Chairman Imran Khan has forced his way into the thought-process of even those who till recently were dismissing him and his PTI as a lost cause and a closed case.

Pakistan makes an intriguing study of paradoxes and contradictions in each sinew of its body politic and in every sense of the word. At one end is its rich history and struggle of a Muslim identity morphing through the Muhammadan Education Conference to All India Muslim League that distanced itself from the rebellion of 1857 to the Khilafat Movement. Both are now the salient of our invented history in just the opposite sense.

Pakistan’s rulers and ruling elites may well be thinking that the wave of people’s indignation that started in Tunisia and is now working its way through Egypt, Jordan

Article published in Nawa-i-Waqt Newspaper on December 30, 2010, highlighting current PTI awami rabta mohim.

Columist Haroon Rasheed in his recent article in Daily Jang (December 17, 2010), highlighted a comparison betweem Imran Khan and Asghar Khan. And hopes that the future is of Imran Khan and PTI.

There are political leaders, like Imran Khan, who are obviously clean, devoted, trusted and capable of contributing, in concert with like-minded people, to movements that can set the ball rolling. Wikileaks also reveals him as the only political leader able and willing to stand up to the Americans and tell them about their flawed policies in a manner that is far beyond the ability and guts of our supposedly “successful” politicians.