CITY NOTES: The real American conspiracy

I’m sure Imran Khan was distracted by the prohibited funding case verdict, which may be why he didn’t notice Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri’s killing in Kabul by a specially adapted Hellfire missile loaded on a Predator drone. The outburst directed at the army chief, hoping that he had been on the helicopter, could have been directed at him through the high-profile killing.

There are a number of interesting things about his death. He was staying in a building which was owned by an aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Deputy Head of the Taliban, and current head of the Haqqani Network. The founder of the network, Jalaluddin Haqqani, had close ties to Pakistani agencies. Of course, those agencies have nothing to do with al-Zawahiri.

Also, their ignorance is so obdurate that they don’t admit to knowing if he was alive or not.

Now al-Zawahiri was definitely the victim of an American conspiracy. Imran should realise that American conspiracies led to fatal results. So far, his being alive indicates that there was no conspiracy.

And then the US has trapped him in the foreign funding case because as everyone and the Supreme Court knows he is Sadiq and Ameen. The funding case where Imran was caught with his hand in the till.

Of course, the Kuptaan only put his hand in the till to help out Arif Naqvi, who is facing fraud and embezzlement charges in the USA. Those charges are part of the American conspiracy against Imran. Don’t be surprised if Arif Naqvi suddenly conks out. Maybe that would give Imran what he wants, the halo of martyrdom without actually dying. So the conspiracy goes on,

I see that our sportsmen are winning medals at the Commonwealth Games. What has been disappointing has been the way our athletes have been losing to India. I would suggest that those athletes should be put up against the wall as soon as they land, and made to face firing squads for being dyed-in-the-wool traitors. And there will certainly be no chance of any of them being adopted to be placed on the same page.

Imran is still paying for the sale of the multi-million watch he got from the Saudi crown prince.

I mean, would the Saudis have handed such heavy sentences to those who disturbed the peace of the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi. He would probably have got them be let off as lightly as PTI supporters are in Pakistan.

Well, today is Ashura. I know that there are the grand themes of sacrifice and dedication to a cause, but I am struck every year by the pettiness of the concerns of those who killed the Imam. They were not bothered about Islam, and what it meant, whether Yazid was fir for the Caliphate or not. They were just concerned about doing their jobs, about obeying orders. It was clearly one of the earliest examples of the Nuremberg defence.

Perhaps that is one lesson of Karbala we should take: BuReaucrats should pay particular heed because they keep facing such situations. But it’s not just about examining the order received. What do we examine it against? How do we know whether an order is legal? I suppose we have to use the Almighty’s law, which is expressed in the Sharia. That was what the Imam was referring to. Yazid was not capable of being Caliph because of his inability to meet the requirements of the Sharia. The Imam took the path prescribed by Sharia, of putting forward himself as a candidate.

It is a salutary lesson that those who obeyed the orders, who committed the crime of murdering the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), may have kept their jobs, but couldn’t get much out of everything. He had ascended to the Caliphate at 34, at the time the youngest of all Caliphs. But he was dead at 37. So all that effort was really for nothing.

Are we about to see more effort for nothing? Imran has decided to contest the nine by-elections to the seats for which resignations are accepted. Everyone and his uncle is scratching their head, wondering why Imran is contesting for seats none of which he will take up. Of course, we mustn’t forget that until he takes oath for one seat, all seats he won remain unavailable to the government, so the bolstering of the government majority would be foiled.

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