The letter …

Whether cheap smartphones or super large wall-mounted TVs, whatever we can afford, some kind of visual is consumed with some noise to go with, to entertain our ever bored minds. We might get lucky and stumble upon a conspiracy story, making even broadcast news a tad more entertaining. Black suits and black bags in black ops sure entertain us.

Imran Khan says he has a letter to prove foreign-funded efforts to remove him from office. An enemy lurking in the shadows or a secret cabal that thrives in chaos and murder is out to get a popular leader who refused to surrender his nation’s foreign policy sure sounds like the work of a mediocre storyteller who is struggling to sell his writing. It sounds absurd that the faceless enemy would control Pakistan’s foreign policy by financing an internal resistance against Imran Khan. For such a power system to see its plans spill out into the open sounds even further ludicrous. But is it?

Using local corrupt politicians in toppling a popular leader because that leader strove to keep an independent foreign policy sounds quite rational when one realises that it has been done before. Does it sound ridiculous that the strongest intelligence agency in the world was trying to find its No. 1 enemy by administering polio vaccines to the poor children of Pakistan? And these secrecy lords saw their secret plans become general knowledge. For a Pakistani ambassador in the US to ask for America’s interference in his own country to control the national army may sound like a cheap fictional work by David Ignatius but it actually happened. Google the word ‘Memogate’ and it might refresh some memories.

A CIA contractor feeling terrified and cornered on a busy intersection of a foreign land reaching out for his Glock and shooting innocent people in broad daylight sounds like a scene from Kathryn Bigelow’s propaganda driven and action filled movie. However, this too actually happened. Remember that guy Raymond Davis?

A dethroned and disgruntled leader talking secretly to hostile nations may be reminiscent of the character Kurdoglu in Ertugrul but that too is quite real here. Nawaz Sharif meeting with Israeli officials in secret is an act of treason because who knows Israel’s ally India could be behind this, not to mention that Israel is a hostile nation to Pakistan too.

Foreign hostile nations prefer corrupt and for-sale politicians in a country of interest. Using local shock troops and corrupt politicians in any country to yank out the leader who has such funny ideas as to pursue an independent foreign policy has been in fashion for decades now. Coups, assassinations, local uprising, no-confidence vote, and so forth have been the modus operandi toward that end.

Ask yourself a simple question: Why is the Indian media so gleeful at the possible unseating of Imran Khan and the potential arrival of Maryam or Bilawal? What possible rational and common sense based conclusion can one have regarding this single fact? While you are at it, ask yourself another simple question: Does India want good things for Pakistan? Answering these questions should be a test enough to end this entire debate and arrive at the truth. Sadly, we prefer a good whiff of lies over the truth.

People want Imran Khan to show the letter. It is reminiscent of how US president Obama was asked to show his birth certificate. He didn’t do it for a while and conspiracy theories flourished. And then Obama finally showed the certificate and buried the story once and for all. If Khan is playing Obama here, that is fine, but he needs to sharpen up his presentation skills. The teasers are fine until a certain point reaches where conspiracy theories win the game. So many lies dominate the narrative that by the time the truth is out, the story is over anyway and the truth becomes almost obsolete. Truth has an expiry date.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2022.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.