Imran Khan was finally convicted in the Tosha Khana case nearly 18 months after his government was toppled by a no-confidence vote, sentenced to three years in prison, fined Rs 100,000 and barred from participating in politics for five years. Eligible.

This may be a new thing for Imran Khan and his supporters who have blind faith in him but unfortunately it is not a new thing for Pakistan.

This has happened with former Prime Ministers in the past as well. Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and then Nawaz Sharif, all came under the influence of each case. If this happened to Nawaz Sharif because of Panama or Iqama, then with Imran Khan because of Tosha Khana. The script however is the same old one.

In Pakistani politics, such punishments do not point to the rule of law, but to who is in power at the time. And Imran Khan and his supporters may have realized this now. But it’s not all over, politicians keep getting jailed. History is full of examples.

But on the other hand, if anyone has any doubts about whether Imran Khan’s popularity will make much of a difference or his ‘crowd pull’ or ‘charisma’ to draw crowds, then he is apparently a Pakistani. He is incapable of politics.

Imran Khan has a huge fan club, from winning the Cricket World Cup in 1992 to waving a letter out of his pocket in 2022 and then almost daily on the TV screen as a popular Tik Tokker. I am suffering, responds to his voice and understands that whatever the captain is saying is true. Even if the captain denies it, the example of the cipher and the slogan of the imported government is before us.

Imran Khan has always told him in terms of cricket that he is standing firm and will play till the last ball. And the fact that he played till the last ball was his wish that the umpire always supported him. At least it didn’t on the morning of August 5, 2023.

The captain has always told his team’s tired players and fans that the match is not over yet so they ‘don’t panic yet.’ It is to be seen whether this time too the same and Bazi can get another reverse or if the match is really over and preparations should be made for another match. Spectators return to their seats to leave the field dejected like the rest of the team’s players.

Imran Khan’s story is also like a story from the pavilion to the pitch and during this time he has delivered so many sixes from his political opponents that they may never forget the innings played with him.

Imran Khan, when he was in government and the no-confidence motion against him was in full swing, had once said that if they remove me from the government, I will become more dangerous. And they became dangerous. He started not only naming his opponents, especially military generals and senior officials, but also accusing them day by day, first in gestures, then in suppressed words, and finally openly. However, he did not present evidence of these allegations in any court or any public forum. But their supporters do not ask for any evidence. Every letter of Imran is a letter of truth for him. And this is the charm of his personality, which speaks volumes.

Imran Khan has been in regular politics for the last 27 years and his popularity has grown like his cricketing career.

The ground of cricket and the field of politics

Imran Khan’s entry into mainstream politics was not a sudden accident and according to him, he waited and worked hard for many years. After the 1987 World Cup, when Imran Khan decided to retire from cricket, then Pakistan President General Ziaul Haque asked him to return to cricket and a few months later, Imran withdrew his decision.

Similarly, General Zia also asked him to enter politics later but Imran flatly refused, Nawaz Sharif also made a similar offer to him, but the captain remained firm on his decision not to enter politics.

But finally Imran Khan got into politics.

Imran Khan liked General Hameed Gul, the former head of the Military Intelligence ISI, for his jihadist views and when he got the chance, he joined ‘Pasbaan’, an organization apparently based on the social ideals of General Hameed Gul and Muhammad Ali Durrani. I joined. Hamid Gul and Durrani called it a pressure group or ‘Third Force’ which, according to them, Pakistan desperately needed because politicians were looting the country for their own gains and the people were caught up in their infighting. had done

Pasban’s founders called it the first step towards social change rather than politics, which came to the fore many years later in the tsunami wave of Imran’s transformation.

It was a very effective ‘trio’. The planning ideas of Pakistan’s former ISI chief Hameed Gul, the excellent organizational skills of Durrani from Jamaat-e-Islami and the charismatic personality of World Cup hero Imran Khan. This organization and its two leaders are apparently very involved in the development of Imran’s political ideas.

After many years, another General Musharraf also became close to Imran and Imran kept meeting with him. According to General Musharraf, PTI leaders were asking him for more seats than the party.

Cancer hospitals and scales of justice:

Imran Khan is undoubtedly considered to be the most important philanthropist in Pakistan after Abdul Sattar Edhi who has served a large section of Pakistan through the Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital named after his mother. But here also ‘Pasban’ must be mentioned. It was Muhammad Ali Durrani who used his contacts in the Jamaat workers and business community to raise massive funds for Imran Khan. In one such fundraising event, Imran Khan also met billionaire businessman Abdul Aleem Khan who announced a donation of six crores for Shaukat Khanum while standing there.

Mansoor Malik, a journalist associated with Dawn newspaper who covers PTI, was present at the event. He says that before forming Tehreek-e-Insaaf, Imran Khan’s biggest project was Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital and he used to work day and night for it. Shaukat Khanum was one such project for which he got the most support from the people of Pakistan. There were young people, there were women, there was the business class and later Aleem Khan, who was called ‘ATM’ of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, also joined it.

Because of Aleem Khan’s donations and services to Shaukat Khanum, a ward on the third floor of Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore is named after his father Abdul Rahim Khan and a floor in Shaukat Khanum in Peshawar is named after his mother Naseem Khan. Named after. Aleem Khan does charity and welfare work under ‘Abdul Halim Khan Foundation’.

Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Research Hospital and Research Center was inaugurated on 29th December 1994 and two years later on 25th April 1996, Imran Khan founded his political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, whose manifesto was also based on ‘Pasbaan’. Among them, the establishment of an Islamic welfare state, the slogan of accountability and the formation of a just society were among the top priorities. Although it was initially called a ‘one-man show’, later more people joined the caravan.

Mansoor Malik says that although the party was formed in 1996, its first big show came in 2011 when it held its first big meeting at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on November 30.

‘By this time, apart from the ideological people, some electables had also joined it. In the 2002 elections, Tehreek-e-Insaf got only one seat and that too belonged to Imran Khan which he won from Mianwali. Then came the 2013 election. At that time, PTI started organizing itself at the grass root level, who will be its candidates, who will spend money, who can and who cannot.’

How PTI Disintegrated in the Past:

As soon as the party was formed, the disintegration started. After the events of May 9, 2023, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf was badly disintegrated and almost the entire leadership gradually left the party blaming Imran Khan for these events. Earlier, during the no-confidence motion, the members defected and the allies left them in anger. Sometimes the defectors were called ‘traitors’ and sometimes they were accused of corruption.

But did this happen for the first time in PTI? Absolutely not. Ever since the party was formed and participated in the elections, different factions in the party were angry with each other and many even left the party.

When Imran Khan formed his political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf in 1996, he probably had no idea of the difference between captaining an eleven-player cricket team and running a political party at the national level.

It is said that Imran Khan’s personality also includes the fact that anyone who comes too close to him gets away from him after some time. From Hamid Khan to retired Justice Wajihuddin and from Jahangir Tareen to Aleem Khan and Fawad Chaudhry to Pervez Khattak, the list of PTI leaders who have displeased Imran Khan at one point or another is long.

Often Imran Khan’s own decisions are the cause of this tension. For example, before the 2013 elections, it was suddenly decided that grass-roots organizing should be ‘elected instead of nominated’, which was a violation of the party’s founding principles.

According to Mansoor Malik, earlier it was said that the party would hold elections, but there was so much polarization that the groups started fighting among themselves. Meanwhile, the 2013 elections came to a head. At that time, PTI realized that instead of fighting the opposition in the election, we are fighting with ourselves. When the election results came, everyone knew where the mistakes had been made.’

Malik says that now those who are defecting from the party are the same people who have been raising their voice before and it is not that they are angry with the party for the first time.

Something similar happened after May 9, 2023. When people started burning and vandalizing military and civilian buildings in different parts of the country after Imran Khan’s arrest in the Islamabad High Court, including the house of the Corps Commander Lahore and the GHQ in Pindi, security agencies Get moving. Hundreds of PTI workers including almost all the leadership were arrested. A few days later, all the major political leaders were released and almost all of them came before the media and announced that they had quit the party and parted ways with Imran Khan.

Some accused him of spreading chaos in the country, but Imran did not miss it. Although politically, the electables were no longer his companions. But his supporters still say that if Imran puts up a ‘pillar’ in the elections, he will also win. Anything is possible in Pakistani politics.

Imran Khan Risk-Taking Approach: A Double-Edged Sword in Politics

Be it cricket or politics, Imran Khan is rarely afraid of taking risks. His calculations may be wrong, it happened with regard to General Bajwa, but not his stake.

Imran Khan did not rely on the competence of his other political leaders in the October 2022 by-elections and contested seven seats alone, winning six. That was his popularity.

Thus, in the 2018 elections, PTI won 116 seats in the National Assembly and Imran Khan became the first politician in the history of Pakistan who contested on five seats and won five out of five. In his speech after the victory, Imran Khan presented the vision of his future government and said that he wants to make the country a complete welfare state and run it on the principles of Madinah state.

He spoke of austerity and a government with a small cabinet, but like in the past, this promise also vanished in a matter of days. The cabinet also expanded and the expenses also increased. Neither the Prime Minister’s House was built as a university nor did the Minister come on bicycles. A line of big and expensive cars started and the Prime Minister started coming to the office on a helicopter. Although the voters who loved him felt bad, but Imran’s love and disgust with the politicians of the past had filled their hearts to such an extent that they accepted this form of captain without wanting it.

In the year 2020, Imran Khan said in an interview that he wants Pakistanis to watch the popular Turkish series Darrels: Ertugrul. It was also Imran Khan’s hint towards the foundation of a strong Islamic state or maybe he was seeing himself in the same way. Turkish historical figure Ertugrul was the father of Osman Ghazi, the founder of the Ottoman Empire, who spent his life fighting against Mongols, traitors, and Christian crusaders. His son later founded the Ottoman Empire which lasted for 600 years.

According to Farah Zia, director of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and senior journalist, Imran Khan’s promise was to reject the old politics and bring new politics, but it did not happen. ‘They started with justice but you can see the state of justice. In fact, nothing could be changed. Because they could not bring about any change, the easiest way was to make people believe in Islamic ideas or Ertugrul drama.’

Imran Khan, A collection of Contradictions during his Political career:

Although Imran Khan may have denied everything he said in his speeches, if he stuck to one thing, it was his hatred for Nawaz Sharif and former President Zardari. He always maintained that he would not talk to these ‘thieves’. He used to say bad things about the military establishment, but at the same time, he would talk to them about negotiations.

A day before his arrest, however, he had said that everyone should sit together and talk for the sake of the country. Perhaps they knew that now the decision was going to come against them.

If seen, Imran Khan is not a traditional politician, who believes in the principles of give and take or showing flexibility in politics. There is no room in Imran’s dictionary for mutual reconciliation advice, he does what he wants. Whether it is to run the party or the country, according to those close to him, he does not need anyone. They do what they think, even if it is one hundred and eighty degrees the other way around from their first action.

A civil servant who spent a lot of time with him told the BBC that ‘I have worked with Nawaz Sharif and also with Imran Khan. The only difference is that if Nawaz Sharif’s ‘attention span’ while discussing official matters was fifteen minutes, then Imran Khan’s was two and a half minutes. If Nawaz Sharif had missed tea or food, Imran Khan would have started looking so disgusted that he would have known clearly that he was not being listened to.’