I felt that the article was disjointed and the analysis ranged from the psychological to the political.
LAHORE: I am writing with reference to an article in your newspaper by Shabbir Ahmad Khan titled “Assessing Imran Khan” (November 27). Before I go into detail, I would like to point out that I am not a supporter of the PTI but rather an undecided voter.
I felt that the article was disjointed and the analysis ranged from the psychological to the political. If the objective of the article was to provide insight to potential voters in respect of their electoral choices by analysing the personality of potential candidates, I think it should have then included the other potential candidates as well. Furthermore, I wonder whether the writer has the requisite qualifications to perform psychological analysis.
As for the political analysis part of the article, the writer seems to make generic statements without any objective rationale to back his assertions. For example, the assertion that Imran Khan is not a ‘man of the people’ begs the question as to what is meant by ‘man of the people’ and if this can even be defined in some way. A case in point would be Jinnah who no one can really say was a man of the people. He was a highly educated, Westernised barrister and, therefore, no more a man of the people than Imran Khan. But that did not prevent him from becoming a visionary leader. The writer also goes on to say that Imran Khan only has support from the upper classes but he provides no evidence to support this. However, even if that is the case, it does not and should not disqualify Imran Khan from being a viable candidate.
Furthermore, the distinction between leading an 11-member cricket team is different from running a nation of 180 million is quite self-evident and, therefore, does not really add to any objective analysis of Imran Khan or his party. Given the generality of this argument, it can very well be argued that leading a national cricket to a world cup victory manifests leadership qualities which, I am afraid, are missing from the present political set-up.
It would have been appreciated if the writer would have refrained from indulging in a psychological analysis without following the appropriate process and even if such analysis is still to be indulged, then such analysis should have encompassed all relevant leaders. Furthermore, the political criticism should have been limited to either policy matters or if an electoral analysis was the intention, then generic statements such as those made in the article should have been refrained from.
We have come to accept a certain quality of objectivity from your newspaper which was sadly absent from this article.
I would again like to emphasise that I am not a PTI supporter. In fact, I strongly disagree with the party on its point of view regarding the Taliban. However, I have come to feel that the media (especially the print media) has been strident in its criticism of Imran Khan and the PTI while not doing the same to other political leaders and parties.
Tariq Nasir
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2012.
