Friday, December 30, 2011

The party and not the man




Imran Khan at Karachi rally mentioned how impressed he was at the age of eighteen to see the welfare system of United Kingdom when he went there for the first time. He also said that Scandinavia has the best welfare system in the world except that they have not embraced Islam. After living in Denmark for nearly a year and observing the welfare system there and having just arrived back home, I share the same feelings as the destiny took me to that part of the world also at a young age. Just like many Pakistanis, I also have high hopes that PTI is pining to make our country a prosperous Islamic welfare state.

No wonder that the reason for the massive support for Khan Sahib is that people in Pakistan have no other option and therefore they want to give him a chance. The expectations of these common people are unprecedented high. However, this is the irony that we as a nation have always had high hopes with successive individual leaders of the parties and not the parties themselves. The very reason of this individual support has been the fact that the so-called democratic parties did not have democracy among their own ranks and even qualified leaders could not excel at the level of Chief Executive because they were not allowed by those who believe in ancestral politics.

Imran Khan has struggled for 15 years to come to this point, but it is pivotal for him to understand that he should not make PTI a one man party. If he really wants to bring a change in Pakistan, it is only possible that his party sets an example for other parties by democratically choosing the best candidate for the best job and this also means that he does not necessary should become the Prime Minister, but take responsibility of administering his party as the Chairman to ensure good governance at all levels.

I believe that if Imran khan wants to do something good for Pakistan, he must bring his members of the party to come in front for the public debate and allow the best candidate to win for that particular portfolio. For example, in the current scenario, the party has three candidates who have been the former foreign ministers. The real democracy will come to Pakistan when people will choose their Prime Minister, and Cabinet ministers among the party nominated candidates and PTI could take a lead to make this possible in Pakistan.

Imran Khan promised at the Karachi rally that "I promise on Quaid-e-Azam's birth anniversary that I will do what the Quaid-e-Azam wanted to do." It would have been so good if he had said that his party will do. It might be a little slip of tongue, but every word matters when you are being looked upon as a savior of the country. He, himself acknowledges the fact that Pakistan has enormous problems but they all can be solved so rather than promising to eliminate corruption in 90 days of coming into power, it is pivotal that Imran makes it clear to his supporters that to bring a change we need to be patient and contribute in this change actively, but allow him reasonable time. It must be remembered that too many expectations made Obama from hero to zero.

Coming will be the interesting times to see what policies PTI will bring to address the issues of Pakistan not only from solving law and order, water, energy, gas, industry, agriculture and transportation issues and education dilemma to providing Roti, Kapara, and Makan for the poorest of the poor and addressing the disparities of Balochistan, but some of the relevant issues that he did not mention in Karachi rally including how to end the feudal system from the country, elimination of honor killing( Karo Kari), rehabilitation of the flood affected people and how PTI would find the solutions to the challenges faced by more than sixty percent of the population in the shape of youth.

In these tough times, whoever is sincere and wants to bring a positive change in Pakistan should be supported and encouraged, but being a youth myself, I must be cognizant of the fact that it should be a support for the party and not for one particular personality in this case Imran Khan, even with the fact that I and many like me love him because of his outstanding contributions to our land and his thoughts to make Pakistan a better place to live for us and our future generations, something we all dream today.

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