Pakistan is Revolutionizing

The emerging leader of Pakistan, Imran khan has demonstrated his political power on 30, October 2011 by gathering more than 200 thousand people in the historical venue Minar-e-Pakistan" in the second largest city of Pakistan, Lahore. It is to remember that it is the same place where, in the leadership of the founder of Pakistan Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Muslim League presented the historical resolution "Lahore Resolution March 23, 1940" which was later termed as Pakistan Resolution in which Muslims demanded autonomy in British India, which resulted in a separate Muslim state in 1947.
The congregation of Imran Khan, who is the founder and leader of political party Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement of Justice), has not only surprised his opponents but also his lovers, supporters and international media. According to careful estimates of national security agencies, over 200 thousand people attended this event and keeping this fact in mind, it is the largest crowed in the history of Lahore since 1986.

The interesting thing noticed widely was the participation of all components of society from all over the country. Youth, elderly, girls, women, children and even special (disable) citizens was witnessed there. Imran Khan declared his revolutionary manifesto of his political party there and hence clearly conveyed the message to the government that corruption will be tolerated no more, he warned politicians that if they fail to declare their hidden assets, he along with people of Pakistan, especially with youth, will block all the cities and will jam the governmental system.

Imran Khan, in his speech, declared that Pakistan has changed today; people have given the decision against the corrupt system and politics. He warned president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif (leader of second largest political party who is ruling over Punjab) that they cannot stop the tsunami of people against the system. He further said that Pakistan will be no more bagging from any country if he will be elected. He said that he will support US to escape out of Afghanistan but will not be a slave of US. "We will develop a strong friendship with china. We will collect taxes, we will not use our own army against our own people, will wipe out the load shedding by operating power generation plants on their full capacity, we will raise Kashmir issue on every forum and India should pull its army out of Kashmir, we will declare an educational emergency in Pakistan, the green Pakistani passport will be respected around the world"

His supporters and followers are extremely satisfied about the manifesto he has provided.

Coming to the analysis, the question is, what made people support Imran at this scale? What made those people out of their homes that did not even vote for anyone and did not use to attend and participate in any political activity?

The answer lies in the current situation in Pakistan. Ramped corruption, corrupt politicians with no self esteem are the contributing factors along with US drone attacks and its unfair and undue influence in governmental issues in Pakistan. The anti-American element is in support of Imran khan, because he is the symbol of dignity and self esteem for Pakistani nation. Further, Pakistani nation today is, largely composed of educated youth, and majority of Pakistani youngsters consists of idealists and optimists. They hate the undue influence of any other state in their national issues, further; their emerging qualities are being seized by the corrupt system. So this frustration goes in favor of Imran Khan. The whole family participation in Imran Khan`s favor has demonstrated these facts.

The other major reality that is in favor of Imran khan is his character. People see him as a symbol of success and leadership. Back in 1992, when no one even thought, Pakistan cricket team in the leadership of Imran khan has won the world cup. He used the term cornered tigers to motivate his team. After that, he turned to build a cancer hospital and went to the people of Pakistan who give more charity than any other nation in the world. In a very brief period he built a state of the art cancer hospital, named on his mother, Shaukat Khanum Cancer Memorial Hospital who is only hospital in the world which runs on the charity of people. This hospital can be compared with any cancer hospital in the world having advanced machinery and technical staff. Inaugurated in 1996 this hospital has an annual budget of almost Rs 3.6 billion. After that, he laid down the foundation of NAMAL College. Namal College is built on land donated by the people of Mianwali District. The two storey building, covering an area of 60,000 sq. ft. houses the college administration, Computer Science, Software Engineering and Electrical Engineering departments together with their laboratories. Phase II of the construction program is expected to begin shortly and include Staff and Student Accommodation premises and research laboratories.

Imran is also amongst some leading World celebrities who donate their talents to advocate for children on behalf of UNICEF as a Special Representatives. He has used his high profile in cricket to support health and immunization programs in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand. In December 2005 Imran was appointed as Chancellor of the University of Bradford in the UK, acting as an ambassador for the University in the UK and overseas. The Chancellor awards degrees but also is important as a role model and in helping raise aspirations and awareness of educational opportunities. The University`s first Chancellor was Harold Wilson, Labor Prime Minister of Britain.

Having all the contributions he made to the society, people see Imran as a man of his words.

Imran khan has sufficient package which reflects his integrity. As he says, "A leader is one who leads from the front," we may say that he is leading his followers by setting his own example, which is very impressive. The steps he has taken in health and education fields have made people believe that he is quite capable of running the governmental system.

"Now we are going to strengthen our party" said Imran while he was on Lahore airport about to leave china on the official invitation of the Chinese government. Seeing his power show on October 30, it is confidently said that his party has successfully established in the common man and have roots in the society. I have talked to an official of PTI (Imran Khan`s party) who lead the caravan of 20 buses, and he told me that we ourselves were amazed to see the huge crowd which was above our expectations.

These all factors indicate that Pakistan is going through a major change and we can say that Imran khan along with the Pakistani youth is leading this change. The frustration level in Pakistani society is quite high and it is necessary that this frustration must be controlled in a positive way otherwise whole system could be derailed. Expectations from Imran khan are very high and he has to bear in mind that what will be the consequences if these expectations will not be fulfilled.

by Syed Talal Hassan Bukhari
talal.hassan5@gmail.com

Courtesy: The Student Operated Press (thesop.org)