On the morning of Aug 22, in the KPK village of Battagram, a cable car with eight passengers aboard was left dangling in midair, about 300 feet from a ravine floor, when two of its cables snapped.
This was a scene of “suspended” tragedy just waiting to happen. Hopes of rescue rested only with the Pakistan Army, whose helicopters, with a crew of SSG soldiers, showed up after midday. For every minute of it, the cameras of every T.V channel remained trained on the developing operation.
Concurrently with the unfolding rescue operation, plans were set afoot, and the stage set, for an award-giving ceremony at the Prime Minister’s house. This was to take place the next day to acknowledge the heroes whose efforts were expected to bless the operation with success. The names of every one of the Army and Air Force personnel taking part in the operation were listed.
But things did not go quite the way they were expected to. The army crew, after repeated attempts, managed to rescue only one child from the cable car before the day ended, darkness took over, and the helicopters flew back to base. For the other seven in the dangling car there was no hope. But then two local brothers, Nasir and Sahib Khan got going. By crafting a makeshift “dolly” and operating it through a zip line, one after the other, they brought each of the potential victims to safety.
Thus they stole the thunder of the army and gate crashed the party at the P. M’s house the next day. The list of heroes had to be amended with the names of the real ones added on, but sadly, without the full acknowledgement which was their due.
This rescue was very important for the high command. From this operation they hoped to salvage some grace from the ignominy which they had heaped upon themselves on account of operation regime change of sixteen months earlier. They hoped to win back at least some support of the people which they lost almost overnight on April 9, 2022, on the night of their callous and infamous betrayal of their country.
But the irony of the Battagram rescue was that no reprieve was forthcoming to them. They were upstaged by the very “people” whose support and admiration they had lost through one treacherous swoop when they handed the country to their foreign masters and local thugs.
And now, just a week after the Battagram rescue, the consequences of years of their pillage are showing up, with hundreds of thousands of ragged people coming out on the streets in spontaneous protests against the power charges. Despite being the minders of national security, the high command slept through government agreements which laid the foundations of circular debt which was now coming in to bite the common man. Indeed, they slept through all manner of asset stripping to which their country was subjected through unbroken years of pillage. We thought this was not given in their Staff Course and War College pamphlets. But only now we know that at bottom they were bandits in uniform who simply joined in and fell in step with the others.
The boys whom they pulled out of storage and set over us were led by Zardari and Nawaz Sharif. The first enjoys international infamy as Mr Ten Percent, and the second has proud ownership of more than 340 properties in London alone, and is addressed as “Chor” by Pakistanis wherever he goes. And the high command, who are supposed to lead their men in battle, we now learn, have ammunition withdrawn from their men on the front lines, if ever they go to pay them their much-choreographed visits. Quaking hearts straying into forbidden zones worrying about their skins and demonstrating a new art of military leadership!
Compare them with the man they have pulled down, and are now expending might and main to keep there. Imran Khan was an international superstar when most of these characters were in their knickers, and had yet to learn to wipe their noses. While they were busy hollowing out Pakistan, he had already gifted the poor of Pakistan a cancer hospital where they could get free treatment. Since then, he has built two more of these, plus two free universities.
I cannot help recalling Lord Wavell’s words when he heard about the passing of M.A. Jinnah while playing golf at St Andrews, Scotland: “I did not much like the man, but had developed a certain reluctant admiration for him. “
Imran Khan does not have to be liked by us all. But the least he deserves is the dignity to be acknowledged for his achievements as a sportsman, a philanthropist, and as a national leader who made us proud to be Pakistanis by the way he carried himself among other world leaders. And for being the one national leader whose honesty escaped untarnished among a den of thieves who exerted mightily to rub dirt on him–the Lilliputians who felled Gulliver down and tried to keep him there by tying him up.
The cabal of looters and usurpers, should they momentarily slip into humility, should think about the stark imbalance between themselves and him. They should think about where he stands in public esteem and where they grovel; and then they should think about the ways they’ve adopted and the lengths they’ve gone to in order to humiliate him so that they can break him down and become equal with him.
When we were young our mothers used to tell us that we’d be known by the company we kept. Another view was that a man was measured by the stature of the enemies he made. Since the usurpers can consort only with the dung of the earth, are they perhaps trying to lift themselves by choosing as their enemy, a man far greater than themselves?