Imran Khan is not the first politician to be shot at in Pakistan. Nor will he be the last.
The nation's political history is filled with stories of bloodbath, chaos, and loss of lives of prominent political figures in terror attacks, through judicial pronouncement or regime changes imposed through military takeovers. Every time such an incident occurs, one party becomes the beneficiary and another gets to play the victim card.
Unfortunately, Pakistani politics has been like this by and large. It is one of the prime reasons the country has not been privileged enough to have even one premier who could complete their five years in office as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
One way or the other, strings have been stretched or cut to replace them and deem them unfit to run the country.
All of this has made Pakistan a fertile ground for accusations and counter-accusations.
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Terror group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for assassinating Pakistan's first woman prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007. But still, Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) accused then-President Parvez Musharraf of being involved in the assassination. The PPP narrative caught the people's imagination, bringing the party back to power. Eventually, Benazir's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, even became the president of Pakistan.
Imran himself has led his share of crusades built around narratives he wished to be woven.
In 2014, the cricketing hero turned politician led a 126-day-long march as part of his anti-government political campaign. He was by far the most popular leader of the time and was challenging the political might of Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) and the PPP -- with his strong show of power.
Curiously, in a smaller protest march in Lahore in 2013, Imran fell off the container he was standing on and got injured. Though that was an accident, he derived political mileage from it by issuing a video message from the hospital bed, asking people to come out onto the streets for a 'tabdili march' (march for a change). It played a substantial part in propelling Imran Khan to the country's premiership.
In the latest incident in Gujranwala, an assassination attempt was made on Imran while he was leading another anti-government long march from Lahore to Islamabad. The chain of events before and after the incident certainly hints at another attempt to capitalise on the incident. It could help him metamorphise from a mere political opponent or establishment pariah into an absolute hero without competition.
Soon after Imran got shot in the foot, he ensured that his close aide Asad Umar released a statement accusing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Federal Minister of Interior Rana Sanaullah, and senior intelligence officers and Director General of Rangers Sindh Major-General Faisal Naseer as the ones responsible for the assassination attempt on him. There was a demand to immediately remove all three men from their positions. Imran also threatened continued countrywide protests by his political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), until the demand is met.
This seems another flashback of past instances when the country's politicians played games of optics and, more often than not, were successful in coming into power thanks to their narratives.
Even though the assassination attempt directly questions the efficacy of security arrangements by the Punjab provincial government under Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi -- he became CM after becoming Imran's candidate – the latter 'shielded' him and pointed fingers at the federal government's top leadership and the military establishment. The only reason for this is that Imran seeks 'national' opponents, like the federal government and the military. He has repeatedly slammed the military establishment for allegedly colluding with political parties opposed to him and who, according to him, became part of the conspiracy of the US-led regime-change maneuver to oust his government.
Since his ouster, Imran Khan has pursued his anti-US and anti-establishment narrative, which has been well-received by the masses and the public. His public speeches are full of name-calling, taunting, and accusations against the military establishment for backing the current coalition government of political parties, who he says are slaves of the west and, specifically, the United States.
This anti-establishment, anti-US and regime-change narrative is not new to the country. Before Imran, his rivals also peddled the same narrative and mocked his government for being "selected" by the establishment.
However, such political narratives have always been coupled with a bloody incident, either in the form of a terror attack, assassination, or, as in the current scenario, an assassination attempt on a popular political leader.
Soon after the latest assassination attempt, PTI's supporters came out onto the streets of Pakistan and protested angrily. And like any other political narrative building under the pillars of bloodshed, the protests were aimed at slamming the federal government and, more importantly, the military leadership, with people openly lashing out with abuses and angry slogans against the military for threatening to push the country towards civil war. The purely strategic message of their political messiah Imran Khan was enough for them to act in this manner.
Political campaigners in Pakistan have often deliberately opted for the notion that a public protest cannot be heard and felt if it is peaceful and a movement cannot trigger major reactions from the corridors of power until blood is spilled. This is backed by the belief that a political leader cannot become successful in the country until he has the support of a powerful military establishment.
Imran Khan has triggered unprecedented landmark changes in Pakistani politics through widespread public polarisation. His is a politics of absolute hate against his opponents to the extent that they are openly called traitors. The military establishment is slammed openly for not intervening and coming to his support for his political reinstatement. He has used the latest opportunity to convince the military that the tide might turn in his favour. He possibly thinks the assassination attempt may create a sympathy wave that can catapult him out of his current political mess and signal the military to take him seriously.
It again underlines how politics in Pakistan is being run on populist narratives and not on the strength of genuine people's support. It is also unfortunate that the success of the political exercise to come to power through the prevalent democratic set-up is entirely dependent on the intervention, inclination, and support of the military establishment. As a result, the political leaders will leave no stone unturned to convince the establishment that they are candidates worthy of power.
Hamza Ameer is an Islamabad-based journalist. These are the writer's views.