Factory for allegations

Letter April 06, 2017
The PTI should wait until 2018 and get ready for the general elections

FAISALABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is a political party that routinely doubles as a factory for making baseless allegations without proper evidence. Recently, the party spokespman and media adviser, Naeemul Haq, accused ex-army chief Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani of rigging  the 2013 polls. Earlier, the PTI had started a campaign in 2014 against pre-planned rigging by the ruling PML (N). The historic 126-day sit-in was touted as a way to make a new Pakistan.

PTI chairman Imran Khan, along with Tahirul Qadri and AML president Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, brought forth a flurry of allegations against their opponents. He and his companions had used foul, derogatory and abusive lanaguage against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during the days of sit-in. Former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the caretaker government, Najam Sethi and the judiciary were accused of manipulating the results of the 2013 general election. Finally, a judicial commission was set up to probe the allegations in which the PTI had to face humiliating defeat because there was no proof. If what Naeemul Haq is now saying is true, then he should should testify before a judicial commission.

This trend of allegations is unhealthy and a bad sign for democracy. Previously, democratic governments had been toppled and the Constitution abrogated different times by military dictators with the charges of corruption and rigging. Former president of PTI Javed Hashmi had resigned from the party in the middle of the Islamabad sit-in and categorically said that Imran Khan is playing in the hands of hidden forces to derail democracy.

The PTI should wait until 2018  and get ready for the general elections instead of and polluting the environment of politics by levelling fake allegations.

Engr Mansoor Ahmed

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6th, 2017.

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