Khan has dominated the news for the past three and a half years. All of the debates have revolved around him, whether for or against him. They’ve been about what Khan wants, what Khan eats, how Khan will one day make Pakistan a superpower, Khan is alone, Khan needs time, Khan wants the Presidential system, the captain is changing the batting order, Khan is happy, Khan is sad, Khan wants that particular DG ISI, Khan has raised the issue of Islamophobia, Khan was unaware of when and how the dollar plunged, Khan is honest, Khan is incorruptible, Khan is battling by himself, Khan is incapable of doing anything terrible, the kaptaan always has a plan, the kaptaan never gives up, and so on.
During Khan’s tenure, a group of journalists has worked tirelessly to deflect attention from Khan’s mistakes. While the other section of journalists were always ready to malign Khan’s image or question his ideology for Naya Pakistan or say ‘Is this Naya Pakistan Khan has promised’ each time he made a mistake. Only a few remained neutral and stuck to honest reporting of facts and statistics.
In Khan’s rule of governance, people all across Pakistan were seen criticizing IK for not delivering as he promised, some, including his own supporters, seemed to be a bit disappointed of Khan’s U-turns, while those belonging from lower socioeconomic backgrounds or surviving/living paycheck to paycheck just wanted Khan’s ruling period to end due to not being able to afford high prices of everyday commodities whose various reasons Khan and his government tried to explain several times.
After giving a chance to the likes of Nawaz and Zardari and being betrayed as a nation, people saw hope in Khan but his government couldn’t meet the expectations of many if not all of them and even the proponents of PTI felt let down. But what happened in the last few months — the oust of Khan’s government — has turned the public narrative upside down as Khan has become the first-ever PM in the history of Pakistan to have been ruthlessly thrown out of the office with a no-confidence motion in the parliament.
We’re going to be looking at the reasons and causes that have resulted in the change of public narrative -people against IK’s government policies to people being in his support under the hashtag #behindyouskipper -in a matter of weeks, and how the Pakistani nation now firmly stand in favour of Pakistan’s then Prime Minister Imran Khan like never before.
“I’ve come out today to demand the same standard of justice for the rich and the poor of our society” Taha Khan, a student at Habib University shared his views with us at the historic PTI Jalsa on the 16th of April, held at Karachi as: “A judicial coup happened on 10th of April when courts were unprecedentedly opened at 12 am-midnight to ensure the National Assembly session and vote of no confidence proceeds in the parliament, to oust the government of Imran Khan. Have we ever seen courts being opened or the honourable supreme court judges this passionately working at midnight to provide justice to the poor or the unprivileged of our society??
Khan may have been battered to death by the opposition, but his political career has been resurrected accidentally. While Khan’s unpopularity was growing in all quarters due to his unpromising governance, the opposition’s impatience has inadvertently made him appear to his followers as the victim of an international plot to dethrone him; a leader facing a superpower. And, despite being stripped of authority, this impatience with the opposition has made him all the more appealing to his supporters.
Ali Muhammad while expressing his views to us at the Jalsa Gah goes like: “I’ve never seen courts or the honourable Supreme Court judges being this active in order to protect the constitution, where were these institutions and judges when Pakistani awam’s mandate was being stolen in the Sindh Assembly in the name of horse-trading? Where were the brand ambassadors of the constitution then? Or do they respect the constitution only when it suits their narrative??”
Rohma Aijaz expressed her views on the whole scenario as: “What I fail to understand is that none of the judges took notice of the ‘threatening letter’ Khan talked about since the beginning, the letter which was the foundation for the dissolution of National Assembly by Khan’s government in the first place, then on what basis honourable Judge Umar Ata Bandiyal termed this act unconstitutional whose only aim was to protect the sovereignty of the state??? This ruling doesn’t make sense, at least to me or maybe the judges were under pressure to pass the judgment against the then Prime Minister Imran Khan. But this is not the end and I, along with hundreds of thousands of other Pakistanis stand with Imran Khan in this Haqeeqi Azadi ki Jang.”
While in a talk with Jibran Agha, a student at Karachi University, about what exactly changed the public narrative in just a few days, he said:
“Today I’ve come here not to support Khan but against all those who have tried to ridicule the constitution of Pakistan for their own benefits. People like us don’t get justice for decades while it took only FOUR DAYS to remove the Prime Minister of Pakistan from his seat in the name of the constitution? The constitution is reduced to nothing but merely a paper that can be used for the benefit of these mafias which they can worship or violate according to their own convenience.”
Wajeeha Khan expressed her views as:
“I’m a middle-class woman, few weeks before my life revolved around being upset with Khan who promised to provide relief to the poor but his was the first government where I could hardly afford everyday commodities, but the way he has been removed from his premiership, its now more about the battle for the sovereignty of Pakistan than about me being able to put food on the table, it's much more complicated than that. We are an independent nation, we are the people of Pakistan and we will not allow any state/country to intervene in our politics or control our internal matters."
Upon asking Hafsa Junaid, a senior teacher at a private school in Karachi, if she believes there is any truth to the foreign conspiracy in the oust of Imran Khan, “everyone knows that the US, as a superpower, conspires in emerging countries and cultivates its influence in various ways depending on the country’s demography,” she said. “I along with thousands of other Pakistanis present in today’s demonstration demand the relevant authorities to look into this matter and investigate whether there was a foreign intervention in the oust of Khan or not”
We asked many of the young girls & boys about their purpose to join Khan at the Karachi Jalsa, the answers were along the lines of: “Today, we’re here to send out a message to the world that we’re not beggars who can not choose -hinting at the disgusting and shameful remark made by Shehbaz Sharif — we’re a dignified nation who knows how to break the shackles of slavery and we know how to protect our self-respect, we stand with our leader Imran Khan who knows how to strike back to the enemies of our state, and dares to say #AbsolutelyNot ’’
A guy not wanting to disclose his identity shared with us his views over the ‘neutrals’ of Pakistani politics:
“What is this fuss about the Establishment being ‘neutral’? The Establishment, in reality, is never neutral; even its non-intervention is a form of intervention. We all know what happened behind closed doors and the ‘Neutrals’ let this foreign conspiracy blatantly proceed because they wanted it to have proceeded, nothing happens in Pakistani politics without their consent”
Despite their success in toppling Khan, the opposition may have acted too quickly, giving Khan a second chance to victory in the coming elections. Instead of absorbing those who wanted to quit Khan prematurely, the opposition should have allowed him to die his own death and let those who wanted to leave him to do so on their own terms. After all, the elections were only around the corner.
However, all of the haste to oust Imran Khan from his premiership has worked in Khan’s favour, as thousands of people demonstrated in different cities around Pakistan to show their support for him. This silly move by the opposition has made the popular Khan even more popular among the Pakistanis. It would not be surprising if these protests sparked a series of others, as there is no doubt about his supporters’ allegiance. They adore him regardless of the circumstances!
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