It is a fact that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has been caught in an unfortunate controversy, which is related to his marriage with Bushra Bibi. How unfortunate, however, it is that some of our politicians are making sardonic comments on the legal and religious propriety of the Nikah between an incarcerated politician and his wife. They have been found to be lampooning him day in and day out, although the honorable court is already seized of the matter and yet to record the testimonies of some more people before it arrives at some conclusion.

Regardless of the details or merit of the case, I must say that certain politicians have weaponised the very personal matter of former prime minister Imran Khan with a view to brightening their own electoral prospects. Given the fact that the matter is sub judice, I shall confine or restrict my argument to the ongoing political ordeal of the PTI chairman in particular. But before I say anything in this regard I must declare at the outset that I am still unwilling to believe that certain politicians would stoop so low as to level some extremely wild allegations against the PTI chief and his wife.

It needs to be noted Imran Khan has already expressed his reluctance to become party chairman through the mandatory intra-party elections that the party is required to hold within a little over two weeks in order to retain is election symbol bat. The PTI, in my view, is perhaps the only major party that has been consistently claiming that it is being deprived of a level playing field by the incumbent government, a caretaker setup, which has unfortunately reduced itself into the handmaiden of the Sharifs of Jaati Umra. Unfortunately, this setup has lost its credibility much before Feb 8, the day for scheduled general elections in the country. I would request Imran Khan’s adversaries to stop gloating over his misery without any further loss of time and instead talk about his performance or lack of it as prime minister of Pakistan. Moreover, they must derive satisfaction from the fact that the interim government has already changed the goalposts for an increasingly beleaguered Imran and his party. Last but not least, we as a society have been moving backward for quite some time. The problem is if we can find a way to halt the regress, the prospect is disturbing for some obvious reasons.

Abu Adnan (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023