Imran Khan Locks Down Islamabad

PTI leader Imran Khan, in pursuit of stern action against Prime Minister Nawaz Shareef, having allegedly involved in corruption and illegal money trafficking, has announced locked down of the capital city Islamabad on 2 November. Isolated on political front and not being supported by opposition parties of the country, Imran Khan has taken intrepid decision to go for solo flight against the government and to bring the purported prime minister to justice.

Imran Khan had first decided to go for lock down of capital on 30 October (Sunday) but later, through consultations with party leaders extended it to 2nd November. He has put forth two demands and has announced that unless either of the demands is met, lock down shall continue. The demands are - either Nawaz Shareef shall resign from the office of premiership or he shall present himself for accountability. 

Imran Khan in close collaboration with Dr. Tahir ul Qadri of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) had fruitlessly sit in for almost four months in 2014 demanding resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Shareef and had to quit due to non-persistent policies and demands. People lost interest and allegedly his ally Tahir ul Qadri had reached to an underhand deal with the government to end the sit in.

As soon as Panama papers were made public, it acted as a catalyst for Imran Khan who was already making hue and cry at every platform against the corruption and money laundering of Shareef family. Imran Khan immediately raised his voice and demanded stern accountability against the facts mentioned in Panama papers. His demanding reaction forced Nawaz Shareef to appear on national TV to address the nation twice as well as to make a speech in the parliament and clarify the allegations. Unfortunately his justifications on all the three occasions contradicted and lacked chronology of events. This caused further disappointment among the opposition and they wanted proper investigation of the charges levied against Nawaz Shareef and his family members.

Having failed to launch a combined movement of all the opposition parties, who parted away on one pretext or the other, and on cold response of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP), PTI decided to launch a solo show near Raiwind - the farm house and residence of Nawaz Shareef in the suburbs of Lahore. The show was extraordinarily outstanding and thousands of people showed up on the call of Imran Khan against Nawaz Shareef and family. Imran Khan, during his public address at the occasion announced locking down the capital so that functioning of government could be stopped under a corrupt premier. 

To neutralize the pressure of Imran Khan's demands, two steps have been immediately taken by the treasury benches. First, SCP decided to enlist the petition of PTI, against the alleged corruption of Nawaz Shareef, for hearing by the panel of justices. Second, Speaker of the National Assembly sent the reference of disqualification of Prime Minister to ECP on the plea of hiding the facts from the Parliament, thus being ineligible to hold the office of Prime Minister under the constitution of Pakistan. Both these steps are received by people as delaying tactics and to gain time through official procedures and file work.

Imran Khan has demanded one of the two steps and has announced that lock down of Islamabad will continue till one of the two demands are fulfilled. the two demands put forth by PTI are: -

• Resignation of Nawaz Shareef from premiership.
• Nawaz Shareef to present himself for accountability.

Both these demands are criticized by opponents based on past behavior of PTI and response of accountability institutions. Major criticism is:-

Demand of Resignation

In 2014 PTI had sat in Islamabad for more than four months for the demand of resignation of Prime Minister on the charges of corruption, nepotism in governmental departments and appointments of close relatives of Shareef family on key appointments, and adverse governance. After four months, taking the plea of attack on Army Public School Peshawar by terrorists, Imran Khan decided to wind up the sit in. After the sit in, the speeches made by Imran Khan at different occasions and his reaction on several national issues dictated that he has shown his failure in demand and was found unable to justify his stance of asking the resignation of the premier. He also reversed his decision of resigning from National Assembly and he, along with all his elected members came back to assembly. Due to his turnabouts it is perceived by serious circles that he will again fail his demand and will end his protest as long as people lose interest.

Prime Minister to present himself for Accountability

The foremost question to this demand is - present before who? NAB has already stated that accountability without evidences is beyond their constitutional purview. FIA is not empowered enough to take any positive steps. Lastly SCP has already announced that the petition against Nawaz Shareef will be heard by them. So what is the forum left where Imran Khan wants Nawaz Shareef to present himself? This question remains unanswered by Imran Khan and his party so this demand, in itself, becomes equivocal. According to Imran Khan himself, all governmental functionaries and key appointment holders are loyal and trusted meek employees of Nawaz Shareef, so to what institution is he asking Nawaz Shareef to present himself for accountability? In case SCP, NAB or FIA clears Nawaz Shareef of all the charges levied on him, will Imran Khan accept the decision and accept that Nawaz Shareef was not involved in money laundering, tax evasion, plundering of public money, and purchase of foreign properties without proper money trail of his wealth?

Besides the criticism on his demands, questions are also being raised on the permanency of his stand, extent and duration of his lock down, especially when he is going for it in isolation and no other political party; even his previous allies, are supporting his call. PTI has also to cater for the alternate courses if government uses power against them and house arrests its leaders to avoid public unrest.

This, in any case is the last chance for Imran Khan to remain in politics. If he fails this time, he will leave political playground wide open to PML-N (in other words Nawaz Shareef Family) because next general elections are due in My 2018 and there will be no challenging opposition for PML-N especially in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan. This will be fair enough opportunity for Nawaz Shareef and company to form governments in center as well as in said provinces.