Malik M. Ashraf <\/p>\n
On Saturday, 20th December 2025, a special court sentenced Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, to 17 years\u2019 imprisonment each in the Toshakhan-2 case and also ordered both of them to pay Rs 16.4 million each as a fine, failing which they will have to undergo another six months\u2019 imprisonment.
\nThey were also convicted for misuse of authority and corruption involving the Al-Qadir University Project Trust in January 2025. Imran was awarded 14 years\u2019 imprisonment, while Bushra Bibi was incarcerated for seven years. However, three earlier convictions, announced in January last year relating to selling state gifts, leaking state secrets, and unlawful marriage, were overturned or suspended.
\nKhan is in jail since August 2023, and he still has more cases pending against him, particularly related to the 9th May mayhem. Therefore, the prospects of his release from prison in the near future remain as bleak as ever.
\nI really feel sorry about his situation and sojourn from hero to a villain because he was my cricketing hero, like millions of Pakistanis and all those passionate about cricket all over the world. The fame and popularity that came his way after winning the 1992 World Cup is not shared by any other Pakistani cricketer. The triumph in the World Cup also acted as a catalyst in raising the funds for his Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital project. Until committing the mistake of coming into politics, he was an unrivalled national hero. I still admire him as the greatest cricket icon that the country has ever produced.
\nHowever, he was not prime ministerial material and not a politician of any sort. He was actually trapped and used by the praetorian powers as a pawn\u2014capitalising on his popularity among the masses to achieve their political objectives. The project has failed miserably, and the man finds himself in trouble for acts of omission and commission during three and a half years of his rule. He probably forgot that those who had catapulted him to that august position could also dump him in case he did not come up to their expectations. That is exactly what happened. He failed to deliver, leading to the withdrawal of support to him, which paved the way for the success of the no-confidence motion against him by the PDM.
\nIt was a moment for him to prove his credentials as a politician and deal with the emerging realities in a political manner. Since he did not have even a grain of political sagacity in him, he embarked on a wrong strategy of blaming the US for having orchestrated his downfall to begin with. However, in the end, he exonerated the US and shifted the blame on the establishment. The Frankenstein came back to hit its creator and has been persistently pursuing the policy of confrontation with the establishment, conveniently forgetting that early in 2021 former COAS Gen Bajwa had announced an institutional decision to remain apolitical and end intervention. He made persistent efforts to malign the establishment and its leadership. He specifically made Field Marshal Asim Munir the target of his smear campaign after the conspiracy to stop his appointment as COAS failed. He was very much part of that sinister plot. He did not stop at that and masterminded an attack on military installations and monuments of martyrs, which were again part of an irrefutable cabal to foment rebellion in the Army against Field Marshal Asim Munir. It was an act of rebellion against the state, which can have very severe consequences for him as well as his party.
\nBut despite the setbacks that he and his party have suffered, he refuses to backtrack and remains as adamant as ever in pursuing the path of confrontation with the government as well as the establishment. Notwithstanding the fact that his calls for protests and agitation for his release have failed to elicit public response, he has yet again asked his followers to launch agitation, ostensibly to put the government and the establishment under pressure. He and his followers fail to understand that he is not a political prisoner. He has been convicted by courts of law for corruption, and his release or otherwise is only possible through the courts. Politicians are never so stubborn and improvident.
\nPsychologists attribute his failures and stubbornness to his psychological make-up. The other day, I was listening to an interview of a renowned psychologist, Dr Aaser Ajmal, with Mubashar Luqman, who claimed that although he had not personally examined Imran Khan, by looking at his conduct as a public figure he was of the opinion that the man was suffering from \u2018narcissistic personality disorder\u2019. According to Dr Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis and psychosexual development, a person suffering from narcissistic personality disorder exhibits extreme delusional hubris, hates dissent, enjoys putting others in difficult situations, is revengeful, and behaves like a sex maniac.
\nKhan\u2019s private and public life is quintessential of all the above-mentioned personality attributes. The biggest example of his stubbornness is his refusal to accept Terian as his daughter, notwithstanding the fact that his sons acknowledge her to be their sister. There is a video viral on social media which shows Qasim Khan, the son of Imran Khan, in reply to a question from Yalda Hakim of Sky News, saying, \u201cTerian is our sister. She has been with us since childhood. When I meet my father, I will ask him to publicly accept Terian as his daughter. It is unfair.\u201d Terian is undoubtedly a product of his illegitimate relations with Seeta White, but he lacks the moral courage to accept the reality, fearing political backlash. Let us also not forget the contents of books by Reham and Hajra Khan regarding his illicit relations with other women and the revelations made by his former colleague Sarfraz Nawaz, which were never challenged by Khan for obvious reasons.
\nUnder the permeating situation, the PTI is better advised to leave the cases against Khan to be decided by the courts and refrain from seeking his release through agitation and confrontation. As a party, it should engage the government and other political stakeholders in a dialogue to resolve the contentious issues, with greater focus on electoral reforms\u2014enjoying national consensus\u2014that forever end the possibility of disputing election results, which have been used as a ploy to foment political instability in the country. The government has repeatedly made the offer for dialogue, and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has again repeated it while addressing the cabinet meeting on 23rd December. The PTI must seize the opportunity to remain relevant to the future political landscape of the country.<\/p>\n
The writer is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at ashpak10@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malik M. Ashraf On Saturday, 20th December 2025, a special court sentenced Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, to 17 years\u2019 imprisonment each in the Toshakhan-2 case and also ordered both of them to pay Rs 16.4 million each as a fine, failing which they will have to undergo another six months\u2019 imprisonment. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3489],"class_list":{"0":"post-522477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-malik-m-ashraf"},"yoast_head":"\n