Imran Khan is the target of your Goebbels’ vendetta!

The truth is that ET has lost all sense of fairness, reasonableness and impartiality.

Zain Umar May 19, 2012
Apropos to the excessively grandiloquent, wastefully voluble and patently frivolous attempt The Express Tribune has been part of subjecting Imran khan as prime target of its Goebbels’ vendetta.

Now, what shall I say about The Express Tribune? The blog has started to give me an impression as if its raison d’etre is to have a unifocal soliloquy on publishing literally anything against Imran Khan without realising how ludicrous the writer may sound or implausible the publisher.

If I were to describe The Express Tribune in a nutshell, I think I’ll marginally settle for this definition: Camelot of an erudite savant they never were, a self-proclaimed paladin of democracy and liberalism, a purveyor of pessimism, their grovelling apology for a political pundit. But their risible theories, disingenuous surmises and analytical howlers can be excused, for they are yet to realise that they cannot fool all the people all the time.

The truth is that they’ve lost all sense of fairness, reasonableness and impartiality when they took up conjuring up drivels for a day job. What is patently evident is ET’s deep seated animosity towards a certain national hero -Imran Khan! Today Imran Khan is like a classic hero who has emerged as a paladin of nationalism, baptised in the waters of public opinion, made great and filled with courage but the worthy writers at ET are on a roll to launch all kinds of ad hominem tirade against Imran Khan by castigating Khan’s rhetoric of engaging the extremist as futile hence a taliban apologist.

In their hare-brained harangue, they have derided Imran Khan as a chronic patient of the malady of a Taliban Goebbels and conceptual bipolarity. Even a cursory perusal of the contents of their write up, once can safely impute intellectual apoplexy to the writer themselves. For his virulent diatribe is replete with vacuous surmises, disingenuous suppositions and twisted formulations. The writers, evidently, write such article merely for the sake for venting spleen against Khan, for the reader remains as clueless as the writer and publisher themselves, as to the purpose and meaning behind such wanton volubility. They begin each paragraph by formulating a supposition, carries it through the middle passage, only to finish it at a menacing note.

He who is conscientious enough to prefer steep heights of truthfulness, selflessness, patriotic spiritedness over the primrose path of least resistance, of timid appeasement, of petty self seeking, always gets pilloried by the forces of status quo and inertia, so goes another law of history. Imran Khan has committed no crime, violated no law, breached no trust, betrayed no cause, wrecked no chariot-merely that he was guilty of sticking to his guns and having the courage of his convictions, courageous and cognizant enough to chart a different course, sing a different tune, and write a different script. This sufficiently explains the vinegary, spiteful, acrimonious and relentless campaign of personal revilement and character assassination; he has been subjected to, by a bunch of self proclaimed saviors of the nation (does that ring a bell?), a coterie of pocketbook analysts and a bevy of pseudo intellectuals.

So obsessed and paranoid are the writers at The Express Tribune about Imran Khan that not a single write up of his is devoid of barbed shafts aimed at Imran Khan. Granted that these writers always ran low on writer’s ink and that logic and profundity were never their forte, but have they become so sterile, jaded and pathetically predictable as to be unable to write a single article without hurling mud at a celebrated national hero? History is replete with examples of once high and mighty writers, eventually running out of ideas and becoming clichéd and banal towards the fag end of their careers, but what to talk about the desultory and vapid ways of these writers who seems to have met their waterloo even before a Toulon? Have they become clichéd and banal without first attaining greatness? Or are they among the proverbial exceptions which prove the rule? But they are not the lone ranger in this relentless crusade against Imran Khan.

There is a certain cabal of pseudo intellectuals, dissembling experts, pocketbook analysts and self styled paladins of democracy and liberalism who have lost their sleep, all sense of reason and logic in denouncing Imran Khan. The question is, what has Imran Khan done to earn their ire? Why is he being painted in such lurid colors? What crude conduct has he been guilty of to elicit such derision and scorn? With minds so fickle, intellects so rotten, like that of the writer himself, busy obfuscating an already clouded national vision by churning out ludicrous drivels like this, bringing about a salubrious change in the sterile socio-political landscape of Pakistan has become a Herculean task. Though the colossus of our politics, Imran Khan, continues to strive valiantly to the same end, with considerable success too, the nation would be better served, if piffle emitting traps like Nadeem Paracha, Saroop Ejaz et al remain shut.

God gave you the gift of the gab; a ready pen; vast vocabulary; exemplary education; facility with ideas and words and made you creative enough to parlay all these gifts in an adroit manner and garner a sizeable and significant readership for yourself. You indeed are a very lucky fellow, for only a chosen few get the recognition they deserve and wield as much influence as is necessary to achieve one’s goals. Being a long time reader of yours and by extension a well wisher, here is my earnest advice-or a request-tinged with an ardent personal wish to you is: Please stop tilting at windmills. Stop using your God gifted faculties for twisting facts, contorting truth, obfuscating the reality and distasteful smear campaigns.

Imran Khan has his faults; he has had his share of indiscretions, oversights, omissions and faux paus; but which mortal is above such foibles and weaknesses? He who has never committed a sin, should hurl the first stone! He who lays claims to infallibility be our savior and I am ready to swore his allegiance.

Be an Argus eyed observer; scrutinise, analyse, evaluate to your hearts and minds content; but do not push the button when it is not required. Criticise when it serves some purpose, when it is cogent and warranted. Blind aversion, robotic opposition and rigid antagonism is not going to throw a spanner in Khan’s works but only would leave a poor impression of your, in the eyes of your readers. If you want to become a paladin of modernity, patriotism, freedom of thought and speech, civil liberties, democracy and transparency, then stop being an incorrigible detractor of someone, who is striving steadfastly to uphold those very ideals.

This blog was originally published here

Follow Zain on Twitter @zmrzain

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WRITTEN BY:
Zain Umar UK-Based Pakistani Corporate Solicitor at DLA Piper (Doha, Qatar chapter) who tweets @zmrzain
The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (171)

HM | 11 years ago | Reply Bomb goes off in the making and flattens the PTI cyber trolls camp.
observer | 11 years ago | Reply @Zain Umar It seems being frugal with facts comes effortlessly to you. Let us consider your arguments, You missed Al-qaeda office in QATAR – An article in NY times Read the news again. It says TALIBAN office, not AL-QAEDA office. Secondly the DPC guys, well don’t you realize that DPC also constitutes of Sikhs/Hindus/Christians? Can you tell me which Hindu/Sikh/Christian organisations are represented by Adv Yusuf, Sardar Shaam and Manohar Chand? What positions they hold in the DPC? And do you have their NADRA references? Do they actually exist?And have you heard of Mir Zafar. Thirdly Forensics report have proved that Hussain Haqqani did indeed write the memo and that’s the only reason why he has chosen to depart away from it otherwise he would have appeared before the memo in Pakistan when was called by the Judiciary and as he promised to do so when asked. You seem to KNOW something even Mansoor Ijaz does not claim.Read his testimony here http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-98597-Contradictions-mar-end-to-Mansoor-Ijaz-testimony Please note the source is the News, by no means a Liberal Fascist paper. And please also note In any case, Mansoor Ijaz does not claim that the memo was created on any of Haqqanis’ electronic devices As you said your call. But FACTUAL please, if it is not absolutely inconvenient.
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