Imran Khan versus Charles Darwin

IT is unfortunate that Irfan Husain launched a diatribe against PTI Chairman Imran Khan in his column, ‘Imran Khan vs Charles Darwin’ (Jan 17). To begin with, the article, ostensibly emailed by a reader, was over a decade old and not a 2008 publication.

But more to the point, Mr Husain quoted Imran Khan out of context clearly at a time when the PTI leader is gaining support by rationally challenging the servility of successive governments of Pakistan to US diktat.

When Imran Khan wrote that Darwin’s theory was ‘half-baked’ and led to much debate over its veracity even in the West, the idea was not to start a debate on recreation or evolution of mankind, but to emphasise why educated people have moved away from religion.

The main point that Imran Khan was making and continues to make is that we should not be bowled over by all things and thoughts emanating from the West, but should challenge them with our own logic and religio cultural influences.

After all, logic and reason is not the sole purview of the West — and irrationality and extremism are as much a part of western civilisation as of any other.

Ironically, it was Darwinism that was used by the propounders of the notion of ‘survival of the fittest’, which was a central theme of extremist racist doctrines like Nazism and the Apartheid notions of the Afrikaans.

Not only was Mr Imran Khan quoted out of context, it seems Mr Husain’s western-obsessed think ing could not tolerate Mr Khan being seen in the company of the JI leader or Gen Hamid Gul.

But Mr Khan also interacts with the Sharifs and Mahmood Achakzai and has also conferred with the present government. After all, Pakistan is a diverse and heterogeneous society and political leaders must talk to all shades of opinion in the country.

I fail to understand what Mr Husain exactly has in mind when he writes about extreme views voiced by Mr Khan in TV talk shows. Whereas at every fo rum Mr Khan has emphasised the importance of an independent judiciary and rule of law, these views do not classify as “extreme views”.

The truth is that Imran Khan has always exposed western duplicities and hypocrisy and has had the strength of being rooted in his own indigenous traditions, not to be overwhelmed by western thought but to look at it rationally and questioningly. OMAR S. CHEEMA Central Information Secretary Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf