An embittered Imran Khan is not acting wisely. A kind of desperate sadness seems to have enveloped him as his move of dissolving Punjab and KPK provincial assemblies has not accrued any dividend to him so far.

The talks that his party’s stalwarts led by his deputy Shah Mahmood Qureshi held with finance minister Ishaq Dar-led government team have only added to confusion and anxiety in the country; these have not broken the government-Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) stalemate or standoff at all.

In other words, the general elections whether on same day or on different dates are still not in sight. In desperation Imran Khan made a highly controversial move or statement which has attracted censure from the army.

The situation has led to an unfortunate war of words between army’s media wing, ISPR, and his party with the former warning Imran Khan of legal action for leveling ‘false allegations’ against the army.

The PTI-ISPR spat seems to have provided a beleaguered Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government a golden opportunity to try to wedge a divide or widen cleavage between PTI and the institution that is said to have catapulted the party into power in 2018.

In my view, there are politicians in the country who need to grow up. Of course Imran Khan tops the list of such politicians. His approach to politics brings to mind Ernest Benn, who had famously said that “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”

Mumtaz Mirza (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023