Both Imran Khan & Tahirul Qadri have entered into a blind and blocked alley, forcing nation into that black hole too.
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: After the failed attempts on Saturday to storm the president and prime minister houses in Islamabad’s red zone, both Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri had been waiting all day on Sunday for the umpire to raise his finger (meaning the dismissal of the batsman on the pitch, Nawaz Sharif). Perhaps both have forgotten that in such situations the umpire usually himself moves forward to establish his own empire — but who is here to learn from history. And then the attack on the headquarters of PTV took place and we know what happened after that.
The PTI president, Javed Hashmi, was brave and sensible enough to warn his party colleagues of possible violence and of the path that Imran Khan was leading them all down on. For his candour, Mr Hashmi was shown the door by Imran Khan, which reflects the dictatorial manner in which the party is run.
Then take the case of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister who has been away from his province for the past 20 days to participate in the Islamabad sit-in. It seems that the Taliban are filling in for him: a C-130 cargo plane was shot at Peshawar airport when it came in to land on Sunday night.
Regardless of these developments, apparently better sense is not prevailing — both Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri have not only entered into a blind and blocked alley but are also trying to force the whole nation into that black hole.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, September 2nd, 2014.
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