News Analysis |
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari criticized Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf for going into an electoral alliance with proscribed organizations against his party. Bilawal was unhappy to see the nexus between the banned organization and the political parties. “We have to set redline against extremism in the politics,” he said. “We have to think what message we are giving to the world.”
It is worth mentioning here that people like Moulana Fazlur Rehman term Imran Khan an agent of “Americans, Jews, Ahmadis and a person of ill character”.
A religious card is widely used in Pakistan’s politics. The former ruling party is notorious for having an alliance with a banned organization. In February, 2013 “while the federal government wants the Punjab government to launch a massive crackdown on the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) and defunct Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is unlikely to oblige. The main reason was a seat-to-seat adjustment deal between the PML-N and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) for the upcoming elections.”
In the last elections, the election campaign of Azam Chaila of PML-N was run by former Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and Moulana Ludhianvi. The PML-N candidate managed to win the election.
Read more: Bilawal Bhutto Questions Imran Khan’s political credibility
PML-N has seen a major setback after the efforts were made to amend the Khatm–e–Nubuwwat clause. Religious parties stood against the party and demanded the resignation of then-law minister. Some religious clerics also issued a fatwa against the party that ‘it was haram to vote the PML-N’.
Now PML-N is making efforts to form an alliance with religious parties (including, banned) to help its position.
The US used Pakistan as a hired gun: Imran Khan
On the other hand, Imran Khan is known across the world for his anti-America, anti-drone, and pro-Islamic views. A controversy was recently surfaced against PTI when Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government decided to give $3 million to the Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary. Pakistani liberals and leftists bashed at the PTI and its leadership for feeding ‘Jihadists’. But PTI chairman Imran Khan on June 24, 2016, said that Darul Uloom Haqqania had agreed to implement reforms in return for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government’s budget allocation of Rs300 million for the religious seminary.
In February, 2013 “while the federal government wants the Punjab government to launch a massive crackdown on the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) and defunct Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is unlikely to oblige.
Imran Khan also added that progressive reforms are being implemented to better integrate seminary students into the mainstream, and said those opposing such moves know “little of Pakistani society.” Moreover, Imran Khan asked an interesting question; “are millions of students studying in these seminaries terrorists?”
Analyst Nusrat Jamil believes that “He’s [Imran Khan] not liberal, intellectually. He may have had girlfriends, but that doesn’t make him a liberal. He’s not a person who thinks in terms of a secular society, who thinks in terms of secularism and democracy. He thinks in terms of a Muslim way of living, a Muslim way of life, and that’s how he would like to live his life. That’s how he would like to run the country.”
Read more: Bilawal slams PTI, alleges IJI is being formed to counter PPP
It is worth mentioning here that people like Moulana Fazlur Rehman term Imran Khan an agent of “Americans, Jews, Ahmadis and a person of ill character”.
“A person who could not make his own children Muslim nor Pakistani is dreaming of becoming prime minister of Pakistan and making the country an Islamic welfare state,” Maulana said in 2013.
“The Yahoodi (Jewish) lobby’s money is working (for Imran),” he said. “I am asked, ‘what is the proof that he (Imran Khan) is an agent of the Jews,’ I say there is only one proof and it is my own responsible personality. I am so righteous that I would never talk ill against anyone. This is enough that Maulana Fazlur Rehman says that he is a Jewish agent.”
The irony in Pakistan’s political discourse is that politicians use all sorts of tactics to defeat their political opponents, even if it means employing some ‘unethical means’ to claim the victory. Imran Khan is, however, an interesting character. He is a westernized liberal and Jewish agents and, at the same time, he is the person having an Islamic vision of state-society.