It was April 1996 when Imran Khan announced the start of a new political party- a party that was started for the delivery of “INSAF” (Justice) to the tyranny-struck Pakistanis, and to make Pakistan truly the land dreamt of by Jinnah and Iqbal.

         Due to Imran Khan’s overwhelming popularity as the world cup winning captain, he was met with enormous responses from public. But the support was not political, so the party met a devastating result in the elections of 1997. It was a small party and such a defeat caused it to shatter. Many leaders left PTI and it seemed that the party would end right there. But it was not so, the courageous captain continued his struggle, kept alive PTI, met many ups and downs in the era of Nawaz Sharif and General Musharraf, got elected as MNA in 2005 elections and resigned in 2007 in support of All Parties Democratic Movement for the restoration of democracy.

         After passing through all that trouble PTI now finally seems to be getting support of the public, and many politicians are rushing into this party. This gathering of politicians has led to a serious question: Is PTI going to serve the same purpose for which it came into existence, or is it just another hallucination that Pakistanis are suffering from? It has been repeated claimed by adversaries of PTI that it is a party being established by ESTABLISHMENT and that a group of same old people can by no means bring a change to Pakistan. Some are even comparing it with PML (Q) and Convention league. To falsify this lame accusation we first need to know about these factions.

         Convention Muslim league was a party built by a man already in power, General Ayub Khan. It is quite evident that people always want to join the ruling side and so they supported General Ayub Khan. These people by no means were loyal to nation. They clearly had the intention to “rule”. As soon as General Ayub stepped down from power, they all left him in a short span of time and now this convention league is just a matter of history.

         PML (Q) had almost the same story. After General Musharraf came to power in 1999, these leaders left their parent party PML (N) and formulated a new political party for enjoying the “RULING RIGHTS” and gave it the name of PML (Q).

         In contrast to Convention league or PML (Q), people are coming in PTI by leaving their ruling parties. As an example, consider Jahangeer Tareen, a former member of PML (Q), who resigned from his national assembly seat and joined PTI. Similarly Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Javaid Hashmi also have resigned from their seats in national assembly to join PTI. This clearly depicts the difference between PTI and PML (Q) or Convention league. 

         Secondly people claim that it is impossible to bring revolution with these old faces. The honest truth about it is that Imran Khan did not go to anyone begging him to join his party. The only man to whom Imran Khan went requesting to join PTI was Javaid Hashmi whose high political stature and patriotism is beyond any doubt. If people want to come in PTI, there is no way a leader would deny it. During the era of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), people became Muslims in hordes but there were also Al-Munafiqoons. Prophet (PBUH) knew it but it was not possible to scrutinize them (I quoted it just an example, as Allah says in Quran to learn from Prophet(PBUH). There is STRICTLY no intention of comparison). The other important point to remember is that Imran Khan has repeatedly said in his interviews that these people are coming in PTI on unconditional basis. This entirely rules out the allegation on Imran Khan that he is recruiting new people into by PTI by giving them initiatives. 

         The third and perhaps the most important thing is that if we trust Imran Khan as the leader than we should trust his selection too. He has been maintaining in his TV interviews that seats shall be allocated on merit basis. He said that a parliamentary board shall be formed that shall give tickets on merit basis and this board shall make sure that the particular person is free from any sort of major corruption charges.

         People have been continuously accusing PTI as a party established by bureaucrats and army men. I simply ask them to name a politician that has no history with the establishment. Nawaz Shareef had been the part of General Zia’s government; Altaf Hussain was established in the era of General Zia and later supported by General Musharraf. Even the most influential of leaders, Z.A Bhutto was a part of General Ayub’s government. 

         This discussion however does not imply that Imran Khan is also a man supported by establishment. Establishment may recruit new people to a party but they cannot force the people to leave their homes. The “TSUNAMIS” of Lahore and Karachi clearly displayed the support from the public. Can establishment gather a charged crowd like these ones?? No, it seems quite absurd. The reason for this baseless propaganda is that when people in the politics see no description for their own shortcomings or the success of someone else, they just blame establishment which seems the simplest excuse.

THE ABSOLUTE VERDICT:
      We as a nation have always been brisk in making decisions and this thing has always gone against us pushing us in a state of anarchy and restlessness. It is time we take a break and give Imran Khan some time. The sudden influx of a lot many people has definitely raised many questions about their integrity but Imran Khan as a leader could not have refused them , he has promised to deliver Pakistan the best available team and has maintained that any corrupt politician shall not be tolerated .His stance is clearly depicting it. In his speech at Karachi jalsa he said that no matter how much you flatter Imran, the final decision shall be on merit. I think it is time we put our trust in Imran and see if he can do what he has promised the nation. I hope he shall not disappoint the nation.

Mehran bank scandal also known as “Mehrangate” was a major political scandal in Pakistan between 1990-1994 in which senior politicians and political parties were found to have been bribed by military and intelligence officers to prevent the re-election and destabilize the government of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).


Initiated by Chief of Army Staff Mirza Aslam Beg with the alleged support of President Ghulam Ishaq Khan payments of up to 140 million Rupees were done by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Chief Asad Durrani and Javed Nasir via the owner of Mehran Bank Yunus Habib. Intelligence funds were deposited in Mehran bank in 1992 propping up what was an insolvent bank as a favour for its owners help in loaning money to the Inter-Services Intelligence in 1990 that was used in the creation of the right wing alliance Islami Jamhoori-Ittehad and bankrolling the campaigns of many opponents of the PPP.
The scandal subsequently broke after the new ISI Chief Lt. Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi decided to transfer the intelligence fund back to state owned banks as per official rules. Mehran Bank was unable to return the money due to its poor financial state and collapsed. It was later discovered that large sums had been siphoned of to 39 fictitious parties.
In 1995, Mehran Bank was amalgamated with the National Bank of Pakistan and in 1996 the NBP had to make full provision for Mehran’s liabilities which resulted in a net loss that year to the bank of Rs 1.260 billion. .

A Supreme Court Petition was lodged by Air Marshal Asghar Khan with the bank transfer details. I wonder as to if Chief Justice of Pakistan could actually take up the case or not?

On April 20, 1994, giving details about the payments made by Mr Habib to generals, politicians and political parties, the then Interior Minister, Naseerullah Babar, told the National Assembly that the main beneficiary of his largesse was former army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg who received Rs140 million.

Key politicians named as recipients of ISI funds included Jam Sadiq Ali (Rs70 million from Habib Bank and Rs150 million from Mehran Bank), Journalist Altaf Hussein Qureshi (Rs.20 million); Yousuf Memon for Ijaz-ul Haq and Javed Hashmi (Rs.50 million); Nawaz Sharif (Rs6 million); former Sindh chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Shah through his secretary (Rs13 million), MQM Haqiqi (Rs5 million), former Sports Minister Ajmal Khan (Rs1.4 million), Jam Mashooq Ali (Rs3.5 million), Liaqat Jatoi (Rs1 million), Dost Mohammad Faizi (Rs1 million), and Jam Haider (Rs 2 million).
Yunus Habib was arrested on April 7, 1994 for misappropriation in the sale proceeds of the Dollar Bearer Certificates. On Dec 14, 1995, Younus Habib was convicted of fraud and embezzlement and given a sentence of 10 years rigorous imprisonment by the Special Court for Offences in Banks in Sindh.