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Imran Khan , The man who sold Pakistan

M. Sarmad

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The man who sold Pakistan - DAWN.COM

CYRIL ALMEIDA

WE’RE already in the middle of it, so why not try and figure out the likely small print. Here’s an idea for the draft agreement:

“The Federal Government shall be under an obligation to take steps to enforce the Shariah, to establish salat, to administer zakat, to promote amr bil ma'roof and nahi anil munkar (to prescribe what is right and to forbid what is wrong), to eradicate corruption at all levels and to provide substantial socio-economic justice, in accordance with the principles of Islam, as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah.”

Sound familiar? It should. That’s the operational part of the 15th Amendment that never was.

If you’re the conspiratorial or cynical sort, here’s a theory for the ages: the once-upon-a-time would-be amirul momineen is about to pull off the greatest political bait-and-switch this country, or perhaps any country, has ever seen.

Nawazul Sharif the amirul momineen. And this time, no one would see it coming — or even blame him for wanting it. It’s the TTP, stupid.

If only. If only that were true. The heart almost aches for it to be true. Anything but the tawdriness and ugliness of protecting Punjab over and above everything else. Amirul momineen would at least suggest a higher purpose.

No, there’s another villain in this piece. Imran Khan. Taliban Khan. The man who smashed this country on the rocks of extremism.

Oh, here we go again, the Khanistas will bleat. Blame Imran for everything. If a dog crosses a road, blame Imran. It’s not even Imran’s government, they will yell. He’s in charge of nothing.

All true. But that still doesn’t make him any less of a villain. In fact, precisely because he is in charge of nothing, he has the freedom to drag us all to ruin.

(KP is a bit prize that the PTI doesn’t even pretend to care about much; it’s Punjab the party really craves.)

The problem with Khan, the problem for all of us, is as simple as it’s ugly: he’s mainstreamed extremism.

Made it sexy, dressed it up, foisted it off on an audience that didn’t really understand what he is selling or why; packaged it as the little blue pill that will make all our troubles go away.

Without Khan, the right-wing wouldn’t disappear. Without Khan, there would still be the Taliban. Without Khan, there’d still be plenty of merchants of hate, bigotry and xenophobia. Without Khan, there’d still be a bunch of apologists.

But without Khan, none of that wouldn’t be as mainstream as it is with Taliban Khan running around.

Let’s play a little game. Imagine there was no Imran. No Taliban Khan on the national stage, no handsome mug and mischievous eyes plastered all over the country and shipped inside every TV. There’s just Zia and his progeny.

So, the usual is playing out. The Taliban are blowing up stuff and themselves, kidnapping a few here and there, issuing their usual threats of taking over the country, etc, etc. Par for the course, really.

Nobody really knows what to do about it. The boys are still playing their games. The pols too weak and scared. The public confused.

Then in walk the original apologists, the political extension of the extremist set. The usual chappies: Fazlu, Jamaatis, Sandwich, et al. And throw in some of the latter-day saints, like Burqa Avenger, aka Abdul Aziz.

And they all have the same message: Taliban misunderstood; all they need is some love; all we — Pakistan — need is some Islam; and all will be good. And boo to the Americans and their evil plans.

Folk listen for a bit, folk yawn, folk go back to their business and have some chai and samosas and laugh about it all.

Those goofy chaps, folk tell themselves, always taking themselves so seriously and pretending nobody knows what they’re all about.

Extremism stays where it belongs: on the margins. Because there’s no one credible to sell it to the centre and the mainstream.

Until Imran. Taliban Khan’s greatest gift is his power of simplification.

Simplification allows you to obfuscate. And obfuscation sells to helluva lot more people than the direct approach — if what you’re selling is the right-wing.

So Taliban Khan arrives with his simplistic formulae. Step one: Pakistan is broken, but Pakistan can be fixed, if only we had a more honest, more patriotic ruling class. Step two: Pakistan doesn’t have a more honest, more patriotic ruling class because they’re corrupt and beholden to outside interests. Step three: Anything that goes wrong inside Pakistan is because of the corrupt, unpatriotic ruling class. Step four: Taliban rose from among the people, a people oppressed by a corrupt and unpatriotic ruling class.

Step five: Taliban are misunderstood, and deliberately so by a corrupt and unpatriotic ruling class that is beholden to self-interest and outside powers.

See how that works?

It mainstreams hate, bigotry and xenophobia without ever sounding hateful, bigoted or xenophobic. It’s all couched in the language of understanding and pain and transferring blame.

And boy, has it sold. That handsome mug, those plaintive eyes, that soft, colloquial Urdu, those open hands — an irresistible package hawking irresistible simplicities.

And just like that, it’s mainstream. Your high-school kid, your average housewife, your gent on a charpai, your trousered and shirted office 9-to-5-er, every one of them a little Khanista.

Drinking from the fountain of refreshing truth, oblivious to its source. Lapping up Imran. Lapping up Taliban Khan, the man who sold Pakistan.

The writer is a member of staff.

cyril.a@gmail.com

Twitter: @cyalm
 
For sure Imran Khan is 3 time prime minister been in power etc etc..... stupid writer who does not even write from his own name....

Who does not write with his own name ? can you plz explain
He is a very well known journalist , assistant editor at Dawn newspaper


who is more stupid, the writer or the finder

The blind followers are surely the most stupid !!
 
Who does not write with his own name ? can you plz explain
He is a very well known journalist , assistant editor at Dawn newspaper




The blind followers are surely the most stupid !!

haha some call me noora and now you calling me blind follower, on the contrary I have problem with Pakistani calling every other Pakistani either as Kafor or sold outs
 
Who does not write with his own name ? can you plz explain
He is a very well known journalist , assistant editor at Dawn newspaper

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He is not even an editor dumbo ..by the way pieces like these is the reason .. Dawn is going down fast.

MQM guys are just pissed off bcoz that british national might be hanged in his country .. somehow they think imran khan is responsible :)
 
He is not even an editor dumbo ..by the way pieces like these is the reason .. Dawn is going down fast.

MQM guys are just pissed off bcoz that british national might be hanged in his country .. somehow they think imran khan is responsible :)

Well , everyone knows who the real dumbos are ;)

Dawn is not going down fast , But Taliban khan surely is !! (aka Thoughtless Khan (Zahrah Nasir), Coward (Saroop and Bilawal), Man with Nefarious Plans (Kamran Shafi) , Tsunami Khan (Irfan Siddiqui), Yaudi Lobby / Jewish Agent (Maulana Fazl ur Rehman))
 
Well , everyone knows who the real dumbos are ;)

Dawn is not going down fast , But Taliban khan surely is !! (aka Thoughtless Khan (Zahrah Nasir), Coward (Saroop and Bilawal), Man with Nefarious Plans (Kamran Shafi) , Tsunami Khan (Irfan Siddiqui), Yaudi Lobby / Jewish Agent (Maulana Fazl ur Rehman))
ur post is rubish .. i read it twice to see if anythng is worth replying but i found the post as dumb as the person who posted it :)
 
@Azlan Haider
Since you are a communist, what's your view on religion and religious extremism?

Do you believe in "Die Religion ist der Seufzer der bedrängten Kreatur, das Gemüt einer herzlosen Welt, wie sie der Geist geistloser Zustände ist. Sie ist das Opium des Volks."?
 
ur post is rubish .. i read it twice to see if anythng is worth replying but i found the post as dumb as the person who posted it :)

Not your fault , You are just one of the PTI brainwashed kids who thinks that journalists who talk against Taliban Khan are Dumbos. To your dismay , dawn is not the only one criticizing Taliban Khan for his stupid policies . And that is what I meant to say in my previous post . But obviously it went way above your head .

@Azlan Haider
Since you are a communist, what's your view on religion and religious extremism?

Do you believe in "Die Religion ist der Seufzer der bedrängten Kreatur, das Gemüt einer herzlosen Welt, wie sie der Geist geistloser Zustände ist. Sie ist das Opium des Volks."?


Yes. Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels, who are the founders of scientific socialism, were thorough atheists and never liked to mix religion and politics.



But they were not the kind of atheists who disrespected religion or religious movements. Far from it. They had great admiration for all those people in history, from all faith of the world, that stood up for the poor and oppressed or moved history forward some fundamental way.







What did Marx say about religion?



Actually, he said very very little against religion. There is only one main paragraph in the entire 52 works of Marx & Engels where they lay down their views on religion (see reference below). In this one paragraph he said a lot of complex things about religion:



1) Religion is the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has not found himself.

2) Religion is an inverted consciousness of the world because the world is inverted.

3) Religion is the general theory of the world.

4) Religion is the encyclopaedic compendium of the world

5) Religion is the the logic of the world in popular form.

6) Religion is the spiritual point of honour of the world.

7) Religion is the enthusiasm of the world.

8) Religion is the moral sanction of the world.

9) Religion is the solemn complement of the world

10) Religion is the universal basis of consolation and justification in the world.

11) Religion is the fantastic realization of the human essence that has not yet acquired true reality.

12) Religion expresses the real suffering in the world.

13) Religion is the sigh of the oppressed.

14) Religon is the heart of a heartless world.

15) Religion is the soul of a soulless condition.

16) Religion is the opium of the people.







OK this doesn't sound so bad. What did he mean religion is an opium?



He said the world is a "heartless" place. And in this heartless world, religion offers psychological relief to the masses ("it is the heart of a headless world, the soul of soulless condition"). In this sense of giving psychological relief it is like opium. Opium in the time of Karl Marx was used by doctors as a pain killer. A pain killer does not solve the disease it only makes us think that the disease has gone away.







So what did he want then?



Karl Marx wanted that we should not only mask the pain of this heartless world with opium (a pain killer) but that we should change this heartless world itself.



He said the world is a valley of tears (vale of tears). And religion is its "halo" (circle of light indicating holiness). That means, religion gives us hope that this valley of tears is bearable because there will be justice in the afterlife.



But Marx wants justice in this life. So he asks us recognise that the world is full of exploitation. To throw away our illusions that this world is anything but a valley of tears. And he wants us to break our chains of exploitation and create a society based on equality where people will not need to create illusions to mask their pain and suffering. In other words he says, we don't want pain killers. We want an end to the disease (i.e. exploitation).





Ok so what does that mean for me?



It means that what ever your faith, belief or religion, you should join the socialist cause in order to get rid of exploitation. Ending exploitation in this world was the life mission of Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels. They made a huge contribution to the cause of liberty by scientifically examining capitalism and showing how it is an exploitative system. And we can use their scientific discoveries to further our cause for the emancipation of people from the chains of exploitation. That is what socialists want: The end of exploitation. That is our only mission. And we hope that it will also be your mission.
 
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Not your fault , You are just one of the PTI brainwashed kids who thinks that journalists who talk against Taliban Khan are Dumbos. To your dismay , dawn is not the only one criticizing Taliban Khan for his stupid policies . And that is what I meant to say in my previous post . But obviously it went way above your head .
na i got ur point .. but i didnt digest the fact that any body who worhsip atlaf hussian , who murderer 100 people and is a fugitative, can criticize a terrorist group .. PTi is against TTP . bUt we think that dialogue is a better way to proceed.. that is why, imran khan is called taliban khan, right? so put ur hand on quran and tell me .. PPP did dialogue( even hand over swat, Nawaz sharif did dialogue ..they why r u trargeting imran khan ?? everyone knows that for a peace full karachi MQM has to be dismentled, banned and need very aggressive operation .. but state preffered dialog and try to engege with them .. so did that make state taliban state?
 
That is what socialists want: The end of exploitation. That is our only mission. And we hope that it will also be your mission.
Thank you. Wish you best of luck in your mission.

But, I am a supporter of capitalism and free market economy. The world has seen that egalitarianism in the form of socialism or the further stage, communism is nothing but a mirage. As Orwell said that in socialism "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." No doubt, in market economy, man exploits man, but in socialism too, man exploits man. History is the witness. We can make all people equal not by making the rich poor but by making the poor rich. Marx himself said,"I'm not a Marxist".
 

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