‘I will return’

November 06, 2022

Sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a deep blue hospital gown,
Imran Khan held forth from his hospital room on Friday evening
as if he were on the container or addressing a rally. And for the
most part, it was the same drill: a catalogue of the conspiracies
that were hatched by his adversaries to oust him from power in
April.

But he did present his own version of what happened in

Wazirabad on Thursday when an attempt was made on his life
as he led his long march. Shots were fired at him and though he
miraculously survived, he was wounded in his legs. One PTI
supporter was killed and 14 persons, including lawmakers of the
party, were injured.

The gist of it was that he would return to the streets as soon as

he recovered from his injuries. This means that there is to be a
sequel to the long march that was halted at Wazirabad.
Meanwhile, he directed his party to continue with protest
demonstrations until the resignations of the three persons he
has nominated for planning his assassination.

He insisted that it was a plan he had previous knowledge of.

Rejecting the theory that the person arrested for allegedly
shooting at him was a lone wolf, he said that firing was done
from two directions.

While it was good to see that the PTI leader was safe and well,
though with his right leg fully bandaged, the eagerly awaited
address did not make it any easier to understand what had
happened and to make sense of the overall drift in the context
of Imran Khan’s obstinately confrontational stance. He wants his
revolution, either through the ballot or the bullet.

Ominously, there were intimations of bloodshed during the

march. Faisal Vawda, an unlikely PTI rebel, was quite graphic in
his ‘prophesy’ that the march would result in blood being shed
and lives being lost. One can say that Imran Khan decided the
date for the march after the murder of Arshad Sharif in Kenya,
pointing his finger towards the establishment. The incident
became the catalyst for his campaign.

The march was jinxed from the outset. It proceeded in fits and
starts, shutting down during nighttime. Then, reporter Sadaf
Naeem was crushed under the wheels of the PTI container on
Sunday. Was it akin to that ‘ides of March’ warning that was
whispered by a soothsayer to Julius Caesar during his
triumphant march? Anyhow, there were two more accidental
deaths. Even otherwise, the march was seen to have not drawn
the crowds that the PTI would have expected, considering the
buildup of Imran Khan’s ceaseless rallies that received more
media coverage than Pakistan’s unprecedented floods.

Naturally, the assassination attempt on Imran Khan has shaken

the country. It has triggered a new cycle of disorder because the
PTI has launched a protest movement that is potentially violent.
The party has taught its workers to be aggressive in their
behaviour. We are seeing them demonstrating in the major
cities.

Soon after Imran Khan was rescued from the container, a person
of the status of Fawad Chaudhry was shouting for revenge,
which amounted to exhorting the workers to have it out with
their political opponents in a violent manner. A minister of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa raised a Kalashnikov and threatened Rana
Sanaullah.

This defiance should have consequences in the light of the open

hostility between the establishment and the PTI. Consequently,
Imran Khan has also become more belligerent towards the
establishment.

However, I detect great significance in the confession of the

alleged shooter and what it portrays as the state of our society.
This person, Mohammed Naveed, told the police that he had
acted alone and he wanted to kill Imran Khan because music
was played during the march at the time of prayers. In another
video, he made even more serious allegations against Imran
Khan. He had reportedly listened to recorded lectures by Dr Israr
and had videos in his phone of TLP Chief Saad Rizvi.

Close your eyes and picture that face in your mind. Do we know
how many of them are out there? And all the power of the state,
with all its pomp and glory, has to bend before them when they,
for instance, lynch a person on suspicion of committing
blasphemy. Religious extremism and fanaticism have been
nurtured by our rulers through their policies.

Imran Khan too, for that matter, has appeased religious

extremism. He is guilty, like many of the rest, of using religion in
his politics. There may be other factors in Naveed’s life that led
him to this vile act, of which he is so proud. Consider the
circumstances in which he was raised, becoming a religious
zealot and also a drug addict.

Pakistan’s history is replete with assassinations and attacks on

rallies. Let me only mention how Benazir Bhutto was
assassinated on Dec 27, 2007 in Rawalpindi. Earlier, she had
survived a midnight carnage – suicide bombings – when she
arrived in Karachi on October 18, the same year.

By the way, Imran Khan wrote an article in The Telegraph of

London, on October 21, 2007, with this title: ‘Benazir Bhutto has
only herself to blame’. On Friday, Interior Minister Rana
Sanaullah said that Imran Khan was himself to blame for the
attempt on his life.

One wonders if more assassination attempts and more violence

on the streets are in the offing. We should be afraid of our
future. Now, let me conclude with this John Lennon quotation:
“The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your
face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent,
then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t
know how to handle is non-violence and humour.”

The writer is a senior journalist. He can be reached at:

ghazi_salahuddin@ hotmail.com