Why the Trump and Khan Being Considered the Same? (Ishraq Ahmed Hashmi)

With President Donald Trump hosting Pakistan’s Ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House, the real interest was said the rapport between the two men. U. S. -Pakistan relations are what they are: It was not good. It could make them better, though not significantly and definitely not quickly. That, almost in its entirety, was to  depend on whether these two get along well at the individual level or not. Of course, this would be true for any such meeting between any two leaders. But it is much more true in this case because of who these two men are. 

Blind love begets blind hate. If this hatred turns into political business, it will result in killings. These results of the politics of hatred are being seen in different countries of the world. On July 13, 2024, the murderous attack on former President Donald Trump in Butler, an American city, is the result of this hatred, which has engulfed even the world's superpower today. Fortunately, the rifle bullet missed Trump's ear. After the attack, Trump kept his composure. With bloodied faces, they waved their fists and went to the hospital saying fight fight. Soon after the attack, many Pakistanis started comparing Trump with Imran Khan as Imran Khan was also assassinated on November 3, 2022 during a rally in Wazirabad, a city in Pakistan. Imran Khan was seriously injured in this attack but he also showed great courage after the attack. Finding similarities between Trump and Imran Khan did not start after the July 13 assassination.

This series started long before Trump and Imran Khan came to power and the aim of those looking for similarities was not to praise them but to ridicule them. Surprisingly, one of his supporters lost his life in the attack on Trump and one of his supporters was also sacrificed in the attack on Imran Khan. The series of comparisons between Imran Khan and Trump in Pakistan started in September 2015, when Parvez Hodbhai wrote a column in the English newspaper Dawn titled "Pakistan's Donald Trump". He was ridiculed as a brigade of the US and said that he is a frivolous politician like Donald Trump who will push Pakistan into a war if he comes to power. In 2018, when Imran Khan became the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the well-known American comedian Trevinoh called Khan the Trump of Pakistan and Trump the Imran Khan of America in "The Daily Show". Initially, Imran Khan and Trump did not have a good relationship, but then in July 2019, Imran Khan visited America as the Prime Minister. His meeting with Trump went very well. In this meeting, Trump offered to mediate on the Kashmir issue, which caused great pain to India. Trump actually wanted to negotiate with the Afghan Taliban through Imran Khan and withdraw his army from Afghanistan.

Imran Khan facilitated talks between the Afghan Taliban and the US through his army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and ISI chief General Faiz Hameed. In February 2020, the Doha peace agreement was signed between the Afghan Taliban and the United States. In the process of implementing the agreement, Bajwa got his tenure extended and launched a series of conspiracies against the elected government, the full details of which remain buried in Imran Khan's chest till date. Some insolent people like me criticized the extension given to Bajwa and insulted Tehreek-e-Insaaf as well as the democrats of PML-N because Mr. Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan along with Mr. Asif Ali Zardari wanted to extend Bajwa at any cost. . In March 2022, when the no-confidence motion was brought against Imran Khan, Parvez Hodbhai wrote another column in Dawn, which was a continuation of his seven-year-old column. In the second episode of the column about Pakistan's Donald Trump, Trump and Khan were accused of taking a Utern and making false statements. Then, in the American and Pakistani newspapers, Imran Khan was called Taliban Khan and Trump was called Trump Khan.

Trump has faced impeachment twice and survived both times. Imran Khan dissolved the National Assembly to avoid a no-confidence motion, but the Supreme Court restored the assembly and Khan was discharged by a no-confidence motion. Trump is 78 years old and Imran Khan is 72 years old, but both of them have more support among the youth because the youth consider both of them as unconventional politicians. Youngsters are not interested in the fact that Trump married three times and Khan also married three times. The youth do not even care that in 2014, Khan's supporters attacked the Parliament House in Islamabad and in 2021, Trump supporters attacked the Congress building in Washington. The youth believe that the old traditional politicians have conspired against both Imran Khan and Trump, both of them have been rigged and both of them have become the antithesis of their blind followers.

In retrospect, the real strength of Trump and Imran Khan is the mistakes and poor performance of their opponents. Both of them were angry with the media when they were in power. Both tried to control the media and I criticized both of them. When these two were removed from power, cases were filed against them without thinking. The media was expected to defend these false cases and blackout both. Independent media can never support false cases and censorship, so the same journalists who used to criticize Trump and Imran Khan started criticizing the misbehavior of both of them. Those judges who were criticized by the supporters of Trump and Imran Khan in the past, the same judges have started giving co-relief to these two leaders. Earlier, Trump and Imran Khan were accused of doing politics of hate, today both of them are the target of blind hatred of their opponents who somehow want to get rid of their popularity by destroying their physical existence.

The physical existence of popular leadership can be erased through bullying, rigging and murder, but this is not a sign of the strength of a state or institution, but of its weakness. The decision of the Supreme Court regarding specific seats may be called a political decision a hundred times, but the eight judges who wrote this decision in history will be called rebels of Justice Munir's tradition. If Imran Khan is not released despite being acquitted in the marriage case in Idda, this will not strengthen the state. Where the constitution and law become a joke, the state is not considered a state, something else is considered. There is only one cure for Trump and Imran. Both should be dealt with according to the constitution and law. Maybe both of them will learn from their mistakes and if they don't learn the lesson, then the remedy for both of them is with the public. The people have placed him on the head, the people have the right to topple him. Trump will not be controlled by abuse and bullets and Imran Khan's politics will not end with false cases. The state should not be exposed to more dangers to eliminate both.