Khan should stop playing with fire or the flames will reduce him to ashes!

By Mohammad Shehzad

‘It was November 1968. Military dictator, the self-styled Field Marshal Ayub
Khan was the sole helmsman of Pakistan. The students of the Polytechnic
Institute Peshawar Road, Rawalpindi (now EME College) had taken out a
procession. They had a scuffle with the police. The police opened fire, killing one
of the students. Then another incident. A group of students of Gordon College,
had gone to Landi Kotal on a trip, and on their return, their goods were
confiscated by the Customs at Attock. After that a Gordonian, Abdul Malik, was
stabbed to death by unknown assailants. This incident took place behind the
College. Thus, we saw incidents, that had nothing to do with politics, spiralling
into one. We, a group of students, including Raja Anwar, Parvez Rashid, Rasheed
Ahmad, Irfan Marwat and a few others protested in front of the Secretariat II
(Ministry of Defence). Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) swiftly exploited these killings
though he even did not know the victims’ names. He was able to mobilize the
public sentiments against Ayub. Protests broke out in every nook and cranny of
the country that rocked his regime to its foundation. Eventually, he had to step
down,’ recall my two Gordonian friend, Afzal Rizvi and Shahid Masud.

Are not we watching the same frame again after 54 years with some added
features?

The two students were not TV anchors or the so-called investigative reporters,
Youtubers or social media activists like our friend Arshad Sharif. Their death was
reported by none except Nawai Waqt (a paper known for raising voice against
dictatorship). On the other hand, Arshad was a powerful spokesman of Pakistan
Tehrik Insaf (PTI). He would bend over backwards and burn the midnight oil to
defend PTI and Imran Khan.

Arshad told everybody including the Chief Justice of Pakistan that his life was in
danger. He ran away from Pakistan and killed in Kenya. His murder was widely
reported here and abroad. Even his detractors mourned his death.

What else PTI needed? Arshad’s death was like a ‘no-ball’ to Imran Khan. The
latter has left his wickets, come out of the crease thinking he will hit a big six. But
considering his follies and impatience, it is expected that (like always) he will
take a risky single and lose his wicket in ‘run-out’. He thinks he is Bhutto. But he
is not even a fraction of him. ZAB was fighting a dictator. Khan is bickering with
his old masters that gave him the crutches with which he would walk in the prime
minister house. He stumbled and fell when the crutches were called back and
given to another needy candidate. His long march is a farce. The real long march
was in the wake of the Lawyers’ Movement that started on March 9, 2007.
Musharraf was in dire straits at its end (March 17, 2009).

Today, no military dictator is at the helm. The long march has a design i.e. give
me my crutches back! Let me appoint my own boy as the army chief.

Khan did not even have a popular mandate like the two-third majority that Sharifs
always boasted and which failed to protect them from military’s wrath. Beside the
crutches, he depended on turncoats like Sheikh Rashid, Shah Mahmood Qureshi,
Aamir Liaquat, Faisal Waoda, Firdous Ashiq Awan and so on. Youthias are his
true followers who are good for nothing except assassinating others’ character
with filthy language, slogans, tweets and doctored videos. The army can make an
example of him any time but it has been keeping its cool. Khan should stop
playing with fire or the flames will reduce him to ashes!

Mohammad Shehzad is an author, writer, researcher, journalist and poet based

in Islamabad. He is a student of tabla and classical vocal music and a passionate
cook. Email: Yamankalyan@gmail.com