SPOTLIGHT: Who gave visa to OBL, asks PM. PM should answer the question or quit! Imran's run for instant power invites flak, risks run out!

Waiting days over for Imran? At least so he appears to think. For several months past the PTI Chief has been boasting about how PTI would sweep the polls and about his campaign being nothing short of a political Tsunami.
Several times during the fortnight he has spoken of the need of his party to find and field 850 candidates for the next general elections ("They will not descend from the sky"), in other words of his intention of contesting all seats. That is his weak wicket. Because in order to be able to field as many "electable" candidates as possible he has put himself under compulsions which detract from his policy of bringing fresh blood into the political game and not allow turncoats and corrupt politicians into his party.
Imran at the receiving end
Thus introduction of Kasuri, Leghari and a few others with long backgrounds of supporting undemocratic rulers, usurpers and corrupt leaders has invited serial attacks from political leaders long chafing under virulent attacks by the Khan for corruption by or under them, for their dynastic politics and for their subservience to a foreign power notably America. Hardly surprising that his political opponents now see a chance of getting even at what they see as a chink appearing in his self-righteous armour at the very first crucial time in PTI's politics. One cannot be associated with PPP for decades as Shah Mahmood Qureshi was and escape part of the blame for PPP policies especially in the area of foreign affairs.
A smart TV programme
A TV channel has done a smart piece of journalistic work by showing Imran on the opposite side in hot discussion over the past several years with leaders of the respective party in power at the time whom he has now accepted in the PTI which will certainly award many of them party tickets in the next elections (they are "electable", remember) and might also give them positions of responsibility in the party. This flashback was presented during an interview with Khan himself who put a brave face on it, but was defensive most of the time. Apart from causing some dilution in the puritanical image himself and of the party, which Imran Khan has been nurturing over the past years, this may cause some disaffection among the "old faithful" who have stuck it out with him through thick and thin (mostly thin) over a decade or more, but may now be required to take back seats in favour of the more prominent new entrants. To be fair however most of these new entrants (except perhaps Malik Naveed Ahmed, former IG Police KP, who has corruption cases pending against him) do not carry anywhere near as stinking a baggage as most leaders in the PPP under Asif Zardari. "Watch out for fair weather friends Imran Khan" as we warned earlier, lest his struggle for a brave new world fall flat on its face like many others.
Javed Hashmi factor
A huge plus for PTI, Javed's goodbye to Nawaz Sharif did not come as a big surprise. Javed Hashmi has been uneasy in MLN for quite some time and had complained in TV interviews, among other things about absence of elections within the party, about absence of consensus in party's decision-making and about the needs of his constituency not getting due attention from the Punjab government under Shahbaz Sharif. He had vowed in a TV interview that he was not averse to contesting for the top slot in the MLN should there be elections in the party. He had participated in the PTI show in Peshawar some months ago when the possibility of his joining that party at a time not too distant in the future appeared to be on the cards. So no big surprise there for Nawaz Sharif as we said. There was a suggestion from a MLN leader that Javed Hashmi did not keep an 11 AM scheduled meeting with the MLN leadership on Saturday, which in the leader's view, could have caused JH to change his decision. But Javed chose to fly to Karachi instead. The same leader (who said his heart was broken by the development) suggested that the change of scene was the work of the establishment which according to him managed to prevent the 11 AM meeting from taking place and that the popular PML leader was hustled towards a change of course. We do not agree with this view. JH is nobody's man and had defied the might of the establishment under Musharraf and had spent years in jail by refusing to end his defiance of the unlawful authority. As for the PPP it can't hide its short-sighted jubilation at this perceived setback to MLN.
The Karachi show
After much controversy, the PTI was allowed by the PM to organise its much-heralded show at the Mazar-e-Quaid. One gets a sneaky feeling that the PPP do not mind political setbacks happening to their on-again, off-again coalition partner. Over the years the MQM has held PPP hostage to its own aims and priorities in Karachi to the extent of paralysing the Sindh Government on and off and causing it problems in interior Sindh. One indication of this among many is the stalemate on the form Local Government system is to take. As these lines were written the PTI show in Karachi on 25 December was well organised and went off well. The attendance was estimated at over 200,000. More important the people sat patiently for some 5 to 10 hours, were responsive to the speeches and cheered and raised slogans throughout. Shah Mahmood Qureshi dwelt on the danger to our nuclear capability not due to technical flaw in the system but due to policy decisions at the top level. Imran Khan on a sketchy description of his road-map to his program for the country's turnaround to a truly independent Pakistan and a prosperous future for it. He also identified his vision for Pakistan as an Islamic welfare state. One would like to see some substance in place before one takes that statement seriously. The next "Tsunami" is planned for 23 March 2012. What about Sindh rural? Abrarul Haq the songster gave a brief but effective speech, which aroused a positive response. The ground-breaking Karachi event ended on a positive note and is likely to deeply influence Karachi's politics in various, possibly positive ways.
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