Pakistan PM: Comedy of Errors

by Mehrooj Rai 6 December 2019

Since the time Imran Khan came into power, his goof-ups and clangers have left many scratching their heads and have continued to create controversies, causing embarrassment for Pakistan all over the world.

Last week, Prime Minister Imran Khan was lampooned on social media after he made a scientifically incorrect statement while speaking about environmental issues during the Ehsaas program event. He was massively trolled for his statement, “Trees produce oxygen during the night and absorb carbon-dioxide.”

What made things worse for the PM, was that he had earlier sarcastically mocked the PPP Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for his comments on rain, “More water comes when it rains more.” Imran Khan’s remarks invited criticism from the netizens who termed them below the stature of a PM. Just after a few days of making these comments regarding the PPP Chairman, the PM said, “With more inflation, comes more poverty.”

A few months ago, Imran Khan became subject to social media jibes after he posted a quote by Rabindranath Tagore on his official Twitter account but attributed it to Lebanese writer and poet Kahlil Gibran.

The tale of Khan and PTI’s faux pass and blunders is rather a long one and has made a risible and absurd spectacle each time for the world to see.

Last year, the Premier outdid himself by branding U-turn a trait of great leader and in an attempt to draw analogy cited the instances of Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte’s disastrous decision to continue their advance into Russia instead of taking a U-turn as that mistake culminated in heavy losses and casualties.

“Leaders should always be ready to take U-turns according to the requirement of their duties and best interests of the nation. One who doesn’t take decisions according to the demand of the situation is not a true leader.” Imran Khan faced a strong backlash after this statement.

While addressing the audience in Pakistan, Imran Khan blurted out another fascinating utterance that he saw Chinese make train that will travel faster than the speed of light during his visit to China. To add up to the fun, he rather said “Speed ki Light” which caused quite a furor and #Speed ki Light started trending on social media. It would surely have been a difficult task for the government representatives to defend both the goofs, his uttered words ‘Speed ki light’ and the ones he intended to say ‘Light ki speed,’ as merely slip of the tongue.

The journey of gaffes did not come to a halt but kept on going, transcending pantomime into travesty.

“Bushra Beghum reminds that I am the PM now,” “Africa is an emerging country,” calling the CM Punjab Usman Buzdar “Wasim Akram Plus,” mentioning Mid-term elections just after the completion of 100 days, extolling chickens and eggs as solutions to poverty and economy- the sheer hilarity of Naya Pakistan kept on emanating.

Imran Khan admonished the Opposition for their obsession of travelling abroad and wasting tax-payer’s money and parliament’s time with walk-outs when he himself, though claiming initially that he would not travel abroad in the first three months, has been on various visits to many different countries since becoming the PM (that to on a jet despite how “austerity” was the rip-roaring slogan in the earlier days of the PTI government) and has hardly attended the Parliament’s sessions.

In the November of last year, he stated while addressing a conference on Eid-Milad-un-Nabi that there’s no mention of Jesus Chris in history. “Moses got some mention, but there is no mention of Hazrat Isa in history.” This ignorant and irresponsible statement by the PM caused severe criticism as his words hurt the sentiments of Christian community undeniably.

Another unbelievable revelation made by Imran Khan was during his meeting with some journalists in December 2019 that he was not aware of the devaluation of Rupee and got to know it through media. The media and people were flabbergasted to see this, not only the PM’s unawareness but also his brazen confession of unawareness. For him it seemed absolutely normal just like it was then for his followers because for them Imran Khan is always right.

Moreover, it was extremely abhorrent to see the sitting PM using the word “sahiba” for the PPP’s chairman. Such toxic misogyny, which is already so deep-rooted in our society, in reality trivializes and humiliates the whole idea of womanhood. Words associated with women are used in lewd remarks by people in order to ridicule and abuse others as if being a woman is something to feel ashamed of. His words were in bad taste and were highly condemned by journalists, politicians, activists and social media users.

Imran Khan became a target of trolls after he “broke protocol” when he met Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz at the Organization of Islamic summit. Later, he also made a gaffe and broke diplomatic protocol at the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit when he kept sitting while everyone else stood to welcome the head of states entering the hall.

Not to forget, the Indian Prime Minister letter of congratulations was misread as an invitation to talks. A call from the French embassy in Islamabad was bragged about, as coming from the French President.

With inanities like “Germany and Japan share a border” in Iran, distorting the history in his midnight address and attributing Rabindranath Tagore’s quote to Kahlil Gibran, the customary ludicrousness continued.

The PM has been frequently illuminating and enlightening the people with his knowledge of history, science, sufism, geography and literature. In the process, continues to make a laughing stock of the country.

All these comedic and ridiculous episodes have turned out to be nothing but farce, shattering the dreams and hopes into illusions.