Are not we supposed to prefer country’s interest first irrespective of personal opinion? (Part 5) – A rejoinder

I read the article with above mentioned title just today on this very website and felt compelled to voice my opinion on a couple of points mentioned.

I have just read the fifth part so I would get in a few pointers on that at the moment. I collect that the writer must not have researched the subject properly, because he says that Imran Khan has never been consistent with his statements.

I do not know whom he was holding Mr. Khan up for comparison with, but I, as any other reader, would naturally assume that it’s against the other major political figures of our country.

Let us compare Imran’s stance on military operations in the tribal areas as an example. He has been consistent in condemning them since 2004, when we first launched a misadventure against our own people. Since then, he has kept firm on his stance that military
operations are not the solution while on the other hand mainstream parties like PPP and PML-N have changed their stance on operations in North Waziristan and Swat alone a couple of times.

A factual error was stated later on in the article by the writer when he asked the question: “if he was not satisfied with the performance of PPP and PML-N, why he had been helping both the parties while launching protest against an army ruler.”

Perhaps the writer was not in the country at the time of the struggle, but leaderships of both parties were definitely outside the country. It was Imran Khan and the PTI who took on the might of General Pervez Musharraf in alliance with the Lawyer’s movement
which later grew into a broader campaign for the removal of the dictator from office.

It was only then that the opportunist PPP and PML-N started to participate in the movement, still on a small basis as their leadership was resting in safe havens outside of Pakistan.

Further down the line NRO was granted after leadership of the two political parties had come to a clandestine and corrupt agreement with the Musharraf and they were subsequently allowed to come back to Pakistan. Imran expressed severe reservations on these
underhand deals that were made to guarantee the status quo.

In fact, he was the only prominent politician to boycott the sham elections held under Pervez Musharraf while the PML-N and PPP shamelessly catered to the General.

Hopefully this clears some of the misconceptions of the writer.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=4044

Posted by Ali Ahmed on Nov 18 2011. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry