New prime minister, old habits?

By
Zahid Gishkori
|
Imran Khan delivering his speech in the National Assembly on August 17

On Friday, as Imran Khan Niazi was elected the 22nd prime minister of Pakistan, there were tears of joy, and then there were tears of disappointment in the parliament.

Surprisingly, Khan delivered his maiden speech in the role he was most familiar with, as an opposition leader, to the lawmakers, over 1,000 visitors in the galleries and the 280 journalists. Offering to open up any constituency for a recount, he mocked, surrounded by parliamentarians from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, “We are ready to arrange a container for Shehbaz Sharif and Fazlur Rehman, if need be.”

One would have expected Khan to talk about his 100-day plan, policy initiatives and provide the nation with a roadmap, but instead, he stuck to politics of the past. He challenged the opposition parties to devise a new dharna plan.

Nearby, Sharif, his rival, was listening encircled by his party’s National Assembly members. When given the chance he too took digs at the PTI top leadership by terming the 2018 election as ‘the worst rigged in the history of Pakistan’. Unusually aggressive, Sharif complained of his brother, Nawaz Sharif’s imprisonment. “The pain is unbearable,” he thundered in a pack-to-capacity hall, where earlier 300 visitors were denied entry.

Former cricketer Javed Miandad, diplomats, academics, foreign and local journalists, teachers, politicians and businessmen were witnessing the proceeding.

But the day was won by Pakistan Peoples Party’s Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who also delivered his debut speech that day. He spoke more eloquently than the other leaders. “Survivors are not getting answers and martyrs are not getting justice,” said the 29-year-old, “We demand a parliamentary commission to probe rigging in the 2018 general elections.” In the galleries, journalists and former politicians compared him to his late mother, Benazir Bhutto. Bilawal lashed out at Khan for name-calling political supporters as ‘zinda laashain’, ‘donkeys and sheep’. He summed up his speech with the words “prime minister-select” referring to the new prime minister.

Thereafter, PTI MNA Shah Mahmood Qureshi suddenly stood up to justify Khan’s speech, which according to him was not the one he had come prepared with.

Other leaders who took the floor that day included Akhtar Mengal of Balochistan National Party, who raised the issue of missing persons and of systematic rigging.

Before Friday’s proceedings concluded, many visitors were whispering that the opposition parties may not choose the route of protests.

I have witnessed many parliamentary proceedings since 2008, never have I heard the leader of the house, and country, deliver a speech like the one Imran Khan gave on Friday. Unfortunately, it has typecast Khan as an opposition leader rather than the next prime minister.


Gishkori is a journalist working with Geo News 

Note: The views expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Geo News or the Jang Group.