PTI’s letter to the UN: A political weapon or defamation of state?

It is disturbing to see that in recent days the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership has started writing letters to international organisations and foreign officials about the events taking place in Pakistan. This is yet another manifestation of the party’s policy to defame its institutions based on exaggerations, fabrications and outright lies.

Two such letters have surfaced this past week. One is addressed to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and has been written by a group calling itself “Physicians of Pakistani Descent in the USA” and the other is addressed to UN Special Rapporteur Dr Alice Jill Edwards which is written by PTI Senior Vice President Dr Shireen Mazari. Both of these letters ask the UN officials to take note of what the writers claim are human rights violations being perpetrated against their supporters by the government of Pakistan.

Three aspects of these letters are noteworthy.

First, they betray the tone-deafness of these writers toward the ramifications of externalising Pakistan’s domestic political issues. The blatant call for UN intervention in Pakistan as made by both these physicians (who do not display the moral courage to identify themselves as PTI supporters), and by Mazari is an outrage that should be felt and expressed by every Pakistani.

Second, the underlying theme of both letters is premised on a deliberate twisting of facts and manipulation of the context. While these American followers of Imran Khan and Mazari wax lyrical on how PTI supporters gathered at the Zaman Park residence of their leader too, as Mazari writes falsely “support and defend Mr Khan against possible assassination plots”, she and her American doctors conveniently forget to mention that these supporters were called by Imran to evade his legal arrest and obstruct the application of court orders by the Punjab police.

Third, in yet another display of deliberate distortion of the actual situation, Mazari and the PTI-supporting American doctors completely omit the fact that PTI supporters not only obstructed the application of the law, but they also attacked law enforcing agencies with firearms, petrol bombs, slingshots, sticks and clubs. The violent PTI crowd went on a rampage at the provocation of its leadership, torched police vehicles, destroyed public property, ransacked the premises of the Judicial Complex in Islamabad, and violated the law of the land with impunity.

By arresting people who resorted to such violence against the state, the police have done their duty. No one can be allowed to unleash violence against the state. However, Mazari would rather find comfort and solace in her hypocrisy than face the harsh glare of the truth. She would happily remain blind to the power of facts than accept the ugliness of her party’s actions.

The unfortunate reality is that Imran considers himself bigger than the state itself. He also considers himself above the law. This arrogance percolates down to his second-tier leadership and they try to ape him in his disdain for the law, respect, and basic human decency. In the process, these members of the PTI’s second and third-tier leaderships have transformed into caricatures of their original selves. No one exemplifies this fall from grace more than Mazari. She has travelled a long way from being an anti-American hawk to becoming an American apologist asking for intervention in Pakistan.

The less said about the PTI American doctors the better. When it comes to caricaturing themselves, they have outdone the rest. Seemingly educated and enlightened people, these medical practitioners appear to have conducted political lobotomy on themselves and botched up the surgery. Their letter to the UN Secretary-General is a vivid example of how politically poisoned minds can turn against their motherland and place petty political interests over national interests.

Luckily for Pakistan, UN officials are not as ignorant about the facts as the PTI people might expect. They are well aware that Imran and his supporters have weaponised their politics against the state. The party is slowly transforming into a militia and will resort to all means possible – including organised violence orchestrated by the leadership – to get back into power.

The law will, however, take its course. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that no citizen should get away by taking the law into their own hands. The PTI is doing itself no favour by using its supporters like cannon fodder while attacking the state and then claiming to be a victim. Imran and his supporters should be made to learn that they can only play the game when they adhere to the rules.