Bushra, a phenomenal phony

For this land to be held hostage by a phony like Bushra is truly tragic. But it is a tragedy that the Establishment created by its own bare hands.

The PTI is set to launch another assault on Islamabad. As always, the wherewithal is provided by Chief Minister of the KP, who, incredibly, on Friday was sitting in a meeting with the Army Chief and others reviewing the expanding reign of terror in this blood-soaked province. Unlike the past, however, much of this “final push” is being managed by Imran Khan’s wife, Bushra. The woman has no formal education, nor has the life’s rare openings given her any worldly wisdom. She cannot speak two sentences without inflicting collateral damage on sanity. Too harsh?  Listen to the nine-and-a-half minutes drivel she posted two days ago. Gibberish dipped in fake piety, incoherent references to religious symbolism and other absolute nonsense. She thinks this passes for deep, life-changing thoughts.

And yet here we are, witnessing the woman incite rabble, asking institutions to defy state orders. You have to admit it. Her fraudulence is successful and hugely profitable. From a woman struck by twilight years, caught up in a dysfunctional marriage, boasting nothing more than a flawed past, she now dictates the country’s largest political party representing a husband that Congressmen and British parliamentarians write about in their dozens, and whose welfare (along with his three children’s) is being looked after by the Goldsmiths, no less. Previously, as the PM’s wife, she was feted at the high tables. She made the country’s powerful elite dance at the flick of her pinkie and beamed from behind her burqa as courtiers fell over each other calling her Murshad (spiritual leader). Sic! And now she is Imran’s instigator-in-chief, blaring war bugles at the generals and the government—remarkable ascent for a nobody from nowhere.

But her exploits are not an outcome of her uncanny luck or some hidden talent that the world doesn’t know about. She is a showcase item of a political system that has been systematically unhinged by the experimentalism of shortsighted and greedy men like Generals Qamar Bajwa, Raheel Sharif and their devious companions like Zaheerul Islam and Faiz Hameed. Yes, the core of her flight to fancy heights of power is to be found in the darkroom that Imran Khan’s party has become. Shorn of light and packed with red-hot anger that Imran and his cabal have fueled through multi-barrel conspiracy theories, the PTI is not fit to be handled by anyone with an iota of political realism and balance. Only Bushra fits into the crazy leadership mold Imran has created.

You can sympathize with the likes of Barrister Gohar or even Asad Qaiser, who are asked to defend and explain in normal terms the total madness that Imran has unleashed across the land, and which Bushra is now furthering on his behalf. Even Ali Amin Gandapur looks reasonable—never thought I could write this sentence—when you compare his actions to the K2 of political knavery the Imran-Bushra tag team brings to the table. So, really, Bushra is Imran’s double, of course abundantly equipped with her own lunacy. The party loves Imran, and Imran loves Bushra so the party must love her too. They have to see her as heir to the mad king’s throne.

But what does it say about the followers, many reasonable and educated, who own and worship such abnormality?

This is a great question but it cannot be answered honestly without referring to Pakistan’s ubiquitous Establishment that fathered, mothered, delivered, nursed, nourished, and raised monsters in our midst, and then paraded them as avant-garde saviors. The formula was that Imran would control the popular narrative and national sentiment; General Bajwa would control Imran; and General Faiz would control Bushra. The trifecta of clowns considered Bushra as a useful tool to push their personal agendas, while the woman was happy to be part of the plan since this offered unlimited opportunities to amass political power, claim unparalleled pelf, and steal dazzling wealth.

After Imran’s marriage to her, state resources were used to build and portray her image as Pakistan’s leading spiritual light—someone who had finally shown Imran the ultimate path to nirvana. Imran himself showered accolades on her and she, in turn, presented him as Siddhartha who, after having seen the light, had become the light himself. While the state for two decades had dinned “Imran the Great” tune into the heads of the nation, and produced today’s zombie youth, since Imran’s marriage to Bushra, the couple was promoted as a two-person salvation army to convince the illiterate that Bushra’s arrival had secured a glorious national future.

Needless to say, this was an elaborate fraud, but one that was done by the Establishment’s workhorses to add another dimension to their Imran Project, to shore up its fledgling political credentials. While Bushra entered Imran’s life through the same backdoor that he had kept ajar all his life for all sorts, her rise to political centrality was connected with the power dynamics of the Bajwa-Faiz phase. Her power was so immense that she could get the then ISI chief (now the army chief) replaced after she had been caught wheeling and dealing. Contrary to the popular belief it was not Imran who had General Asim Munir transferred out but a fuming Bushra who told her husband that Gods were angry at him for allowing a subordinate to malign Pakistan’s goddess of purity.

Now that she is out there amplifying Imran’s message of nationwide disturbances and mayhem, wrecking the country’s strategic ties with partners like Saudi Arabia, she is a reminder to everyone in the Establishment what happens when you gift power to grifters. This country’s founder’s life was influenced by Sarojini Naidu, Ruttie Petit, and Fatima Jinnah—formidable women. For this land to be held hostage by a phony like Bushra is truly tragic. But it is a tragedy that the Establishment created by its own bare hands. This is not the first one. Nor will it be the last.