The problem with “Riyasat e Madina” is that it was violent and followed by the “fitna”. Alas for Imran Khan, known as “Im the dim” — never a good student of history (to the extent he thinks Japan and Germany share a border) — this history lesson might have avoided him unnecessary hyperbole. The original Riyasat e Madina wasn’t such an easy place to navigate. Violent rebellions were common and three of the four Rashidun caliphs were violently killed off — Umar, Uthman and Ali — and the period was followed by two openly destructive civil wars, the first and second fitna.
Now Imran never really was a smart cookie, but the string of incredibly good luck that has accompanied him might have led to some messianic delusions. Consider this: despite all the scandals surrounding him, he was made the captain of the Pakistan team. It doesn’t help that your uncle ‘Tiger’ Niazi is responsible for the East Pakistan debacle of 1971, and yet, in spite of that, you ‘avenge’ the defeat exactly 20 years later by winning the World Cup.
It doesn’t matter that your party keeps scoring abysmally low percentage points — by a seeming miracle you win enough seats to become the prime minister ultimately. I mean who cares about the inconvenient fact that the Army majorly manipulated the election? After all, what’re you more likely to believe? That the Army helped you or God helped you? Of course, it’s easy in the Pakistani context to conflate the two because the Army plays God, but still? You see where this is going don’t you? Bit like a sequel to Monty Python’s “Life of Brian”. Brian and Imran kind of rhyme a bit, don’t they?
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So where does Imran’s speech leave us? For starters, he backed off from naming his creator (the Army) as his destroyer. Chickening out after all comes very easily to the Niazi clan. But to chicken out during the middle of a speech? He named America as having engineered his downfall and then retracted mid-sentence. Consider this transcript: “America has — oh, not America but a foreign country I can’t name. I mean from a foreign country, we received a message.” He then went on to say, “The letter stated that the no-confidence motion was being tabled even before it was filed, which means the Opposition was in contact with them,” claiming that it was an “official letter” that was communicated to the Ambassador of Pakistan in Washington, and that this country was upset that he had visited Moscow.
Now conspiracy theories are de rigueur in Pakistan. Virtually everything is a foreign conspiracy if you go by what the streets of Lahore and Rawalpindi discuss. But unlike Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto who handled their respective ousters with dignity, we now have the spectacle of Pakistan’s prime minister mumbling off street level conspiracy theories as official explanations. The level of cringe this induced across Pakistan is quite entertaining to watch — that is for everybody who’s not a PTI supporter.
So is Imran Khan actually deluded or is he playing a smart game? I’d personally be inclined towards the latter. Is this a guy with exactly zero self respect who doesn’t know the difference between people laughing at him or people laughing with him? Or is he a guy who plays dumb to lull his opponents into a false sense of security? I’d again say the latter. Remember he’s been extraordinarily loyal to the Army, repeatedly expressing his loyalty to the institution. If the fracas over the DG ISI is to be considered, that can be put down to the factions and silos within the Army that Imran tried to play but backed off when he realised he shouldn’t go as far as Nawaz Sharif did with Musharraf in 1999.
He’s almost certainly aware that his luck has run out but he’s not playing for today. In his mind, at least, he’s playing for tomorrow: where an Army with few other alternatives will reinstate him for good behaviour. After all, by facing a parliamentary motion of no confidence, he offers himself up as Christ did to absolve mankind of all sins. Indeed, a formal loss in parliament would largely absolve the Army of any perceived manipulation — paving the way for his resurrection.
The question now is what happens from here? Has Imran transitioned from Riyasat e Madina to the Kingdom of Christ? Is he a Claudius feigning a feeble mind under a tyrannical Caligula only to emerge as a wise ruler later? Somehow I doubt it — but I’m quite sure Imran doesn’t doubt it, not one bit.
The writer is a senior fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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