Re: Imran to file case against Altaf! (merged)
I fault his approach, the way it is now, with selective campaigns and so on. Of course the this and that are things I think he should do to his approach to correct his approach and gather the lost or new support,
I believe he has far more support to gain from being an effective voice against the current government, instead of someone who bickers with everyone and is therefore effective aganst no-one.
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I agree 100%
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So if he is ineffective against any of those personalities by himself it stands to reason that he ally himself against the current bad-guy in power to maximise his influence.
strategically, if full democracy and free courts has always been his mandate, then fighting against Musharraf allied forces makes sense in the here and now.
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Actually at that time (c1996) ppl only had BB's crimes fresh in their minds and Nawaz was supposedly the heaven sent messiah. And Nawaz himself created huge issues for Imran.
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Why is BB tipped to win the popular vote this time round? Clearly we have a pretty bad short term memory, and both of them are now pretty popular, especially BB.
No reason to suppose that if he takes on those two again the same wont happen again.
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I don't think he was ever really fighting everyone. Even 4 weeks before the 2002 elections, the public loved this slogan;
Awam ki hai ek hi rai
Musharraf o Imran hi aaye
He had begun drifting away from Gen Mush after the referendum as he says.
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Yes, I meant that he was fighting every other political party as corrupt, and had welcomed Mush as had the rest of the Pakistanies as a possible fresh, non-corrupt face.
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But never mind all that. Even if he were fighting all with sincerity, the various manipulations that crushed him in the 1996 elections and the Nawaz and JI campaigns against him calling him a Jew, defaming him over personal life and so on since 1995 onwards till 2002, shouldn't have mattered to him at all. Because it didn't matter to his supporters, it didn't matter to me then or until few years ago, I was his big supporter. Those understanding his wavelength didn't care if he got a seat or not, they believed him and were with him because they trusted him as a hero, with a clean record, an option with maximum hope and vision then, who was a force to watch and be with regardless of a seat in parliament.
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The seat was an illustration of his pull with the electorate. If people power is what counts then Imran is a very small fish, and cannot do anything by himself to change anything. He needs to work with whoever shares his cause (restoration of democracy, non-impotent courts) regardless of their past deeds.
Once his cause is attained and if he still is allied with them then your criticism would be valid.
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But the combined opposition is a hoax; they're not combined in any ideology except Musharraf's ouster, there will be no combination of any sort post Musharraf and Imran will be the first one pushed to the bottom of the pile on day1. So Imran isn't really gaining solid from this. The opposition, combined or individual, also lacks any planning in policies, Pakistan's internal and external issues and their tackling post Mussharraf.
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That is nothing new. Very often political groups with very differing ideologies come together to work for a shared cause. If they actually had a shared policy that would be troubling, because that would mean one or the other compromised on their respective perspectives that makes them different.
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Not to say the "sar mundate hi oley" that will fall after Mush's ouster and the floodgates of issues (and yes these issues are of unique and volatile nature like never before in history; OBL, Taleban, US wars on terror, suicide attacks, a diff stance on Kashmir and so on) that will open requires so much planning and thought which none care for being directionless or rather uni-directional in the ideology to ouster Musharraf and I beg to raise concerns over this ideology to start with. I don't think he's the bad guy, nor the biggest bad guy, neither the bad guy whose ouster will open the doors of heaven upon Pakistan and eliminate all other bad guys who shackle, shackled or will shackle Pakistan.
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You fight the battle that is just, even if you see another after that one. That is how you can retain the moral high ground. When you see injustice and power hungriness running amok like it is right now, you have to oppose it. When another person comes and he does the same thing, you will have to oppose that too. In the end you cant compromise on principles to support one bad guy over another.
Nobody is saying Pakistan will be heaven post Musharraf. But some times circumstances demand change for the sake of change, if only to signal to present and future leaders that this kind of behaviour cannot pass without consequences.