Dealing with the PTI

This is my country's fourth front, with the three already open in surveying and defending both eastern and western borders and fighting terror in our midst via Fitna al Khwarij and Fitna al Hindustan. While the latter three consume most of our resources, the first in the list takes most of our time. This is true for at least the government in power, and what constitutes politics in this blighted nation we call home. You can blame it on the man, incarcerated and behind bars and now quiet, or those on the outside, apparently free but consumed by this one man who can neither be seen, nor heard, nor named.

Nelson Mandela was put out of sight for twenty-seven years, even if he could not be put out of mind, but there was no visible impression through a popular reaction to his being jailed by the apartheid regime in South Africa. I haven't read much on him or on South Africa of those times, but for the Blacks to hold a sentiment against the White minority for being maltreated at their hands when the entire world had given up on this inhuman treatment of men, would only be instinctive and natural. They did not require a Nelson Mandela to sensitise them on the need for their freedom.

Freedom is germane to human existence, even if it takes twenty-seven years to arrive. But for those twenty-seven years, South Africa ran as a controlled, even if apparently normal, state — I say so from the perspective of a state, even if it needed ruthless repression of the Blacks to quieten them to absolute submission. The Whites, for those years, ruled over the country and its resources.

We are talking time here. The time that a regime or a government in power needs to get things in order, ensure stability, and get the system back on track. If that be so, and not the man who somehow consumes our existence, we have that in place; he is behind bars under various indictments and sentences, while his activities can be managed and regulated by controlling his life as it might permit our national objectives to proceed unimpeded. Even if we were to be large-hearted enough to allow a few visitors — again under our supervision and control — there is little that this man could export from jail in terms of policies and politics that his leaderless party could garner. So shorn is the PTI of cohesion and integrity and singleness of purpose among them.

Politics without context is irrelevant, and when you take the context away, the political guidance can only be misplaced. And no, the state is not that weak to be upstaged by misdirected followers. Of it, there should be no fear. The state is far too omnipresent not to know and keep the order in place. Nelson Mandela hardly led a revolution from his cell; only a global outrage and a resident sentiment ultimately forced the apartheid regime to cave in.

There is a lot that Imran Khan can be blamed for: his tenure of over three years was listless, laden with major misjudgements and faulty decision-making; he could barely transform from a popular leader to a reformist and a policy person; he chose the more complicated options which rendered the political system vulnerable when faced with opposing forces; in the May 9 and Nov 26 options between 2023-24 he placed the state system in serious conflict. That we as a nation barely kept our structures together was a stroke of luck. That it has infused such polarisation that political and social stability remains precarious. His choice of words in his comments, speeches and remarks, unfortunately, remains acidic.

Yet Imran Khan remains the most popular personality on the political landscape. His party has an unquestioned majority in one critical province and retains a significant vote base in other provinces. He is thus someone who, along with his party and its politics, will still need to be managed and engaged. We cannot wish him away nor disregard the massive following he continues to enjoy. We have never been as divided as a nation as we are now. It will need some serious introspection and careful management without the burden of presuppositions that may not consider ground realities. This holds true for both sides.

One way to repair the rupture is to let the dust settle. Instead, we tend to stir a storm every day. Politics must function within its own circle where political parties alone interact and compete. State structures similarly have their own circle to operate in and limit themselves to their functions within that orbit. The two intersect very briefly only at the level of the government which must act both as a political entity and an organ of the state, but beyond that no other state institution must engage in other orbits of coexistence.

The less we spotlight the unsavoury from any other orbit, the less shall we create a possibility of an uncalled-for conflict when the state of the nation stands at its most precarious. In this triangular coexistence of competing interests and blind followers, and hence serious polarisation that results in this zero-sum age, when two sides conflict, the third is an enthusiastic cheerleader. Unfortunately, this has become the fait accompli for the hapless nation.

A reset is needed, except that the arbiter who would historically reset has now been pulled into the fight and is now an equal opportunity participant; nay, at times the prime exponent. This scheme and design must be changed. The arbiter must return to its role as the arbiter. It bears significant responsibility in facilitating consensus among political stakeholders and ensuring the nation's stability amidst its structural and systemic challenges. The need for the right environment to engage is espoused, yet no one defines it.

Perhaps it would consist of the PTI shedding its impulse to embroil the state institutions, essentially the army and its leadership, in an unnecessary brawl through its statements and social media harangues. In return, the state could take the pressure off the PTI, enabling it to conduct its politics as per the rest of the political parties, affording them compatible space. Imran Khan may be permitted his visitation rights in jail as he fights his legal cases. He is unlikely to cause turmoil or lead a revolution from behind bars.

Maligning principals from both sides in this ungainly fracas is not the recipe for any stability or security. The stakes are too huge for a nation already stung by its follies of the past. In the meantime, the PML-N and the PPP just ordered their popcorn for the duration of the show.