My family and I have been PML-N supporters for as long as I remember. The reason, I guess, was not so much Nawaz Shareef himself but his contrast to Benazir Bhutto, who gave the impression of ‘unIslamic’ modernism. As a moderate-conservative Pakistani family, Nawaz Shareef seemed a better choice to us.
With Imran Khan appearing on the political horizon of Pakistan around year 2000, some of us began to rethink our political choice. Hmmm, what about Imran Khan? Imran Khan, a politician? Can he be? Can he do it? Looking back at his pre-political career, one is forced to consider … Cricket World Cup 1992. Awesome! Then while we were still thinking over Imran Khan, he achieved two more feats … Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital and NUML University. Wow! He can really aim and shoot!
Then suddenly, Imran Khan opened a new chapter in the political journey of Pakistan. Accountability of politicians and nabbing corruptions! Prior to this awareness, we would simply judge politicians by their speeches, social impact and at max succumbing to America. We never considered how much money they were putting into their own pockets while in office. Simply never thought of it.
With the anti-corruption movement launched by Imran Khan, we got a new vision of how to assess politicians. As Muslims though, we should have been aware of it prior to his campaign, for we are a nation whose history boasts of accountability for all. Once Caliph Umar bin Khattab RA stood up for a sermon wearing two chaddars instead of the one publically handed out to everyone. One of the Muslims stood up and questioned him upon it. The sermon was halted until the dubious matter was clarified. Caliph Umar RA being a powerful but honest and humble person, accounted the second chaddar as a gift from his son. He did not get offended and neither did he refuse to give accountability. Hence, the small property of a chaddar was accounted for and then the sermon proceeded.
And what not Imran Khan did to create this sense of accountability and political awareness in Pakistan? From speeches to rallies to sit-in protests to sleeping in containers. And he rightly asks ‘Why am I doing this? I have fame to fortune to everything I could ask of Allah Almighty! I do not need to get into this mess … but I am doing this to reawaken Pakistan.’ So he rolled up his sleeves and stepped into a swamp where no mother would like her son to murk around. No decent parents in Pakistan would ever dream or hope or suggest to their child to be a politician. They know it’s a dirty field and a dirty job. So we all sit comfortably in our neat, clean, decorated drawing rooms and criticize politicians while we would dare not enter politics and clean up the mess in there.
The height of his mobilization was the one-hundred and twenty-six days long D-Chowk dharna of 2014, which Imran Khan finally halted in the face of the very tragic APS tragedy. Later, he picked up his protests again and again until he finally called for the Nov 2 Islamabad Lockdown. The Supreme Court and state were cracking and crackling under the pressure of PTI’s endless and relentless civil push for investigation into Panama Leaks against the Shareef family. So just when the iron was read-hot, Siraj-ul-Haq of Jamat-e-Islami coolly walks in and files a petition in the Supreme Court against the Shareef family. Its just like someone sweats and maneuvers a car for a parking place, and just as he is about to drive in, someone else does. It is considered very, very bad civics.
And now that the court process has completed, and the Shareef family has been indicted, Jamat-e-Islami are trying to take credit of the whole struggle. Huh? Imagine if Siraj-ul-Haq had filed his petition prior to the 2014 Dharna? Would there had been any steam in that petition? In fact, now that I think about it, Jamat-e-Islami has been around for decades. Did they ever raise the issue of corruption amongst politicians? Have their political movements have had any steam other than their religious movements? No. I greatly respect Jamat-e-Islami for its religio-political endeavors and had a hard time choosing to vote between PTI and JI in 2013 elections, but really … taking credit for someone else’s efforts, is not good Islamic ethics and strongly condemn the attempted credit stealing by JI.
“O’ you who believe,
Why
do you say what you do not do?
Great
in hatred is in the sight of Allah
that you say what you do not do.”
[The
Holy Quran, Surah As-Saff, V.2-3]
