Puppet PM of Pakistan

Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan has surrendered to the extremists even before he could join the fight. Soon after assuming charge, he showed his weakness by dropping a well-known economist from an advisory body under pressure from the Islamist extremists who targeted the economist because he was an Ahmadiya. If that did little to buttress the hope that the Oxbridge-educated former international cricketer will shun obscurantist influences, his decision now to surrender completely before religious extremists on the acquittal of Asia Bibi by the Pak Supreme Court on the charge of blasphemy marks him out as a weak and spineless prime minister. Bibi was on death row following her conviction in 2010 for insulting Prophet Mohammad, a charge thrown out by the Supreme Court for want of credible evidence. Her acquittal last week led to violent protests by various extremist groups. For some days it appeared that Khan would withstand the pressure, striking a courageous note in interviews to television channels. But within days of that interview, he crumbled. Committing not to challenge the appeal against the SC order and promising not to release Asia Bibi from jail. Meanwhile, her lawyer has fled the country fearing murder by the extremists while her husband has pleaded for asylum in the UK. The complete surrender in the two cases cited above exposes Khan as a puppet who, regardless of his modern education, remains a prisoner of religious extremists. Not a good augury for the Pakistani society.