As a writer I can’t help paying rich tributes to Dr Tahir ul Qadri’s skills as a screenplay specialist and a producer of sequels. Soap opera will not be a right description for what he produces, as he tends to keep each story independent though with common characters.
I have vivid memories of the 2012-2013 winter, when Dr Qadri’s first thriller had climaxed in Islamabad in such a moving speech one afternoon that even a cold-blooded critic like Ayaz Amir had been moved so intensely that he hadn’t been able to hold back his homage. “Dr Qadri has all the passion and all the logic required for revolutionary change.”
His sequel had been in the Dharna days of 2014, when he had, with the sheer force of his oratory and the undeniable precision and appropriateness of his arguments and logic, he had been able to rekindle the dying revolutionary flame.
And his next sequel came early this month— on the third of September — when like Alexander the Great ordering his troops to march on Egypt (with Babylon under his feet), Dr Qadri gave his troops victory tidings either in the battlefield of Islamabad or Raiwind.
He built up the tempo of his impending onslaught with a ferocity which was heroic even by his own previous standards.
“O the people of Pakistan, they are going to burn all the evidence of their crimes from the Ramazan Sugar Mills to the other places that house the record of their misdeeds, unless you rise with me to pounce upon them, and bring them to justice.”
Not many hours later the fire-breathing harbinger of change was announcing.
“This sequel of the Qasas series in over. Not meaning thereby that the road to Raiwind is closed for us.”
All this has left Imran Khan in a bit of quandary. I personally know IK has never invested very high hopes in Dr Qadri’s heroics. Yet a crack in the battle lines in the mid of a battle does take some toll. With the PPP playing a sinister hide-and-seek game, Khan has some more home-work to do.
As for Dr Qadri, he is Sylvester Stallone of Pakistan’s political scene. He is playing Rambo.
Let us see when and how our Rambo stages his next come-back.
