Has Faisal Vawda’s presser sabotaged Imran Khan’s Long March?

The conspiracy of Arshad Sharif’s assassination was hatched in Pakistan and executed in Kenya. Some influential people forced Arshad Sharif to leave Pakistan. “I see dead bodies and a lot of bloodshed before, during and after the long march”, stated former federal minister Faisal Vawda who was disqualified by the Election Commission recently.

The hurriedly called press conference of the PTI leader Faisal Vawda has devastated his party in particular and the people of the country in general. His revealing statement would have serious aspersions on the allegedly involved party leaders and the others holding important positions.

Vawda did not reveal the names of those involved in the conspiracy of killing Arshad Sharif but said: “I have recorded their names on a video and if any harm was caused to me no one would be safe from among them”. He went on to say that not in months or weeks, he would bring all facts leading to Arshad Sharif’s murder to the public knowledge within the next few days.

However, the former speaker of the National Assembly, Qasim Suri and Punjab PTI leaders including Mussarat Jamshed Cheema have condemned Vawda’s statement. Sindh PTI president Ali Zaidi has issued a show-cause notice to Vawda. His party membership has also been suspended and his name has also been removed from PTI’s WhatsApp group.

On the other hand, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah while reacting to Vawda’s statement has accused Imran Khan of Arshad sharif’s cold-blooded murder.  

It may be mentioned here that after the lapse of five months, PTI Chairman Imran Khan has announced October 28 as the date for the launching of the promised long march, what he now terms as ‘Haqeeqi Azadi March. It was on May 25 this year that while announcing the end of the then-long march, he threatened the government that he would stage a comeback with a larger number of protestors after six days.

During this lapsed period he has been holding public rallies from one city to another that included 21 huge rallies in KP, Punjab and Sindh while making a concerted effort to motivate his party workers and supporters to join the proposed march towards the capital. Needless to point out that it is for the first time that federating units are launching an onslaught against the Federation.

During his recent rallies, he introduced a new move of taking oaths from participants of these rallies in a Hitler style asking them to commit not to stay back and attend the proposed Haqeeqi Azadi March. This surprised many. In their view, this oath-taking was to topple an elected federal government by attacking the capital.

Imran Khan’s previous narratives included an American-sponsored conspiracy to topple PTI’s government through a no-confidence vote,  accountability across the board, eliminating the menace of corruption in 90 days, creation of South Punjab Province in 90 days etc all being buried. Since the PTI chief was desperately in search of another sellable narrative so he found one in Arshad Sharif’s assassination. Since this unfortunate incident, the former prime minister is shifting the blame to the Establishment without directly taking the name of the Pak Army.

Imran Khan has confessed two very alarming facts. Firstly, he says that he received reliable information that Arshad Sharif would be assassinated and secondly, he forced Arshad Sharif to flee from the country to save his life. The question being asked is if Imran Khan was in the possession of this vital information why did he not share it with concerned authorities for timely action?

Political pundits on both sides of the divide (the government and the PTI) are of the view that you now plan to use this shocking assassination to settle your score with the leadership of the Pakistan Army which has publicly disassociated itself with the politics. This is unacceptable for you since strangely you believe that they should always be on your side.

In his recent interaction with the national media personnel, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has shared reasons why the Army had to distance itself from the PTI chief and his policies. According to social media reports, Gen Bajwa recalled how the establishment helped Imran Khan to assume power and how independent he was in taking decisions independently. His narratives of ‘Cypher’ and ‘Absolutely Not’ were false propaganda and blatant lies.

Now that Imran Khan has given a firm date for the long march, efforts are afoot to ensure that a large number of people should join the march for which the party’s elected representatives have since been assigned to at least bring 6,000 people from each district.