The Economist report on Bushra Bibi’s influence on her husband, PTI founder Imran Khan, hardly breaks new ground. Some of the persons carefully left anonymous are easily guessed at. The people carefully not mentioned, and others duly identified, have sought a political future in the Tehrik Istaehkam Party. However, one of the interesting revelations is that Mrs Khan’s interference was behind the rift with the military which the party is still trying to live down, and which it ascribes to US interference. Be that as it may, the PTI has reacted strongly, and said the report did not mention the various ways in which political persecution was being carried out.
The party and the publication both ducked the question of how far can an elected official be influenced by the person who is closest to him, and how far this is compatible with an oath of office. Indeed, it is not just elected officials, but appointed ones, like superior court judges, or promoted ones, like senior officials, who have to decide how much their spouses are to be told about what they are up to. However, who is to be the spouse’s repository? A friend, like Farah Gogi? What if the spouse uses her influence to impact governmental decisions. This is not a question that has arisen with Mr Khan. The Prime Ministers before hjim have all been evaluated on this standard. Where does a healthy influence transform into petticoat influence? It should be remembered that in the instances of Nurat Bhutto vans Kulsoom Nawaz Sharif, their respective entrances into politics only occurred when their husbands were arrested and came under the shadow of the hangman’s noose. Mrs Bhutto actually witnessed her husband’s hanging, while Mrs Sharif died while her husband was in jail.
While the PTI might reject the report, it has helped the party paper over the complete failure to rally the public against the 27th Amendment, With lawyers still following a wait-and-see policy, the protests have yet to pick up momentum. It is also not clear that the public is upset enough either with the government generally, or the 27th Amendment, to come out onto the streets. The PTi has still not finished its soul-searching over its failure to spring Mr Khan from jail despite a number of attempts, both by protests and closed-door negotiations. THe petticoat influence of Mrs Khan has not extended to that, though the report does take potshots at her for trying to run the party while Mr Khan is imprisoned.
Concise and informative. I learned something new today.