IMRAN Khan’s mantra is deceptively simple. He symbolises change. He is the change.

And the forces of status quo, defenders of the rotten system out there don’t want him to succeed. It includes everything and everyone outside the PTI tribe.

It is Imran Khan, the simple, noble and naïve versus the system, powerful and evil, and while Khan has ‘the nation’ on his back, the evil system is constituted by the PML-N, the PPP, the caretaker set-up and international powers. Former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary, Jang Group and UN officials are recent entrants to the evil league against change. It is a conspiracy of cosmic proportions.

One notable omission in Mr Khan’s narrative is the much-talked about deep-state. The question of electoral reforms is on no one’s agenda. The problem, as already suggested, is the impression one gets about the monopolisation of victimisation by Imran Khan. The problem is Mr Khan’s argument that everything in the country that has anything to do with the electoral system has been designed to one end: to keep him out of power.

Popular political sentiment and public discourse that is being fiercely pushed here is not meant to reform the electoral system. It is meant to bring Mr Khan in the Prime Minister House through mid-term elections. Only such an end will justify the means, i.e. transparency and credibility of the electoral process.

Ali Mohsin Goraya

Germany

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2014