Bad Politics

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Imran Khan was welcomed in Balochistan because Balochistan needs to become socially and politically re-integrated with the rest of Pakistan. Mainstream political parties can be of immense help in democratizing the province. Yet within the first ten minutes of his speech, Imran Khan declared Nawaz Sharif the reason behind all the crises in Balochistan, without providing any evidence to substantiate his statement.

Today's Balochistan is infested with complex political and military problems, which are aggravated by a weak federation and a lack of political will and dialogue. Imran takes a sensitive approach to the missing persons but evades mentioning the real culprits behind them. Instead he equates the abducted to Aafia Siddiqui, whose case was quite different. And above all, Imran didn't mention the sectarian militant groups that have been targeting an ethnic minority.

Accusing Nawaz Sharif or any other politician of perpetuating this violence and chaos is not only tactless and unfair, but also very dangerous. Imran knows that the agencies and militant groups are dangerous, so he did not mention them. Instead he decided to blame his political rival. He is misleading the masses and that is no way to find a genuine solution to the problem of Balochistan. This is bad politics and complete dishonesty to gain popularity.
This letter was first printed in the Friday Times.