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There was a time when Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Tendulkar, Ian Botham and Waugh brothers were regarded as the difference from the rest. Pakistan would win because it had Imran Khan or Wasim Akram. India had Tendulkar. England had Botham. Australia had Waugh brothers. These are symbolic names. There were many others whom one could regard as POINT OF DIFFERENCE.
I am using cricket as an allegory to explain the statement I am going to make. In the political scenario of Pakistan, the point of difference is Imran Khan. Otherwise all the political parties have similar kind of human capital. There is not much to choose among the rest. What gives strength to the PTI leaders and ministers is the personality of their leader.
Without Imran Khan, the PTI would mean more of the same. I am making this statement with due respect for and apologies to men like Asad Umar and Shafqat Mahmood. Not meaning thereby that I don’t harbour respect for the rest. I only mean that without Imran Khan at the helm of affairs, the PTI would struggle to survive. There is nothing common in Dr. Shirin Mazari, Shafqat Mahmood, Asad Umar, Jahangir Tarin, Ghulam Sarwar Khan and almost all others. I have serious doubts about any one of these having any idea of what is meant by ‘Riasat-i-Madina’. For most of the leadership of the PTI it is no more than a figure of speech or a hyperbole that Imran Khan uses to catch the interest of the religious vote.
The irony is Imran Khan knows it, and also feels the pain that this knowledge brings.
But I have stated in a number of articles that I have written in the past that turnarounds in history have mostly been brought about by individuals — the kind of individuals who can themselves become parties, systems and institutions. Imran Khan belongs to that breed. His stature however will be decided in the next two or so years.
As for those harbouring longings to bring him down, they remind me of a statement that Suharwardy made in a different context in the 1950s.
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