Political tango: Sanaullah retorts with seven queries for Imran
In response to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan’s four queries posited at a public rally on Friday, former provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah posed seven questions for the PTI at a press conference on Saturday.
“Why has Imran Khan announced a march on the federal capital before the end of the one-month deadline he has given to the government to respond to his questions?” Sanaullah asked.
He said the nation deserved an explanation for Khan’s pronouncements as he intended to overthrow the federal government through street politics.
He said Khan should also tell the nation how many of the “35 punctures”—a reference to alleged rigging in 35 constituencies—pertained to the provincial and National assemblies.
“The PTI chief should explain how many of the 35 punctures took place in each province,” he said. He must also disclose the number of “punctures” losing PTI candidates had requested election tribunals to probe, Sanaullah said.
The PML-N leader said the PTI had no presence in Balochistan and Khan had not raised much furore over rigging allegations in Sindh or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “According to Imran Khan, Punjab is the only province where rigging took place,” Sanaullah said. Khan should explain why he planned to punish the people of the other three provinces by trying to bring down the federal government, he said.
“There might come a time when Khan can gather a million people. But why is he trying to force the will of a million people on a nation of 180 million?” asked Sanaullah.
The PTI chief had said that he would hang any policeman who raised his hand against PTI workers during the long march, Sanaullah said. “That is like saying that all PTI workers are Brahmins and the rest of the country Shudra. Imran Khan needs to explain the demand for preferential treatment for his party’s workers,” Sanaullah said.
His sixth question drew a reference to Tara Masih, the executioner who had hanged former prime minister Zulfiqar Bhutto. “The nation has already suffered one Tara Masih. Why is Imran Khan intent on taking after him?”
Sanaullah said Khan had emerged as a legitimate leader after the May 11 general elections last year. “Why doesn’t he behave like one?”
He said any political party could gather thousands of people and flex political muscle. “But if Imran is talking about toppling the federal government and imposing his political ideology, there’s no difference between him and the Taliban.”
Moreover, if Khan set out to overthrow elected governments through strong-arm tactics and street power, that would shatter the political fabric and set a precedent that democracy could never recover from, Sanaullah said.
He said Khan’s philosophy was illegal, unethical, undemocratic and unconstitutional.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 29th, 2014.
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