Open letter to the President of Pakistan

Pakistan needs to educate international public opinion about US V Afghanistan situation

Open letter to the President of Pakistan
Emailed on 3 November 2001

Dear Mr President

As my previous posts would confirm, I have admired your capacity to lead, political wisdom and the strategies that you had developed to effectively address the issues that confront Pakistan. However, the recent US v Afghanistan situation has put Pakistan in a very different and difficult position. I fully appreciate the extreme pressures on your administration from all quarters and the enormous task of dealing with present circumstances. I want to be helpful and it is within the context of the ‘strategies’ that I write to you in good faith.

Let me begin by saying that I have no axe to grind. As a matter of fact I took no interest in the socio-political aspects of Pakistan till very recently though I have been quite active in addressing similar aspects in the main stream British society, as a social scientist and within the scope of equality and social justice, for the past 30 years. I had my education at the Government College, Lahore, perhaps at the same time when you were at the FC College. I am in a very respectable profession – I’m inspector of schools in England. I have said all this not to impress but to indicate that I am capable of analysing the current affairs and offer a way forward.

One of the big tasks that Pakistan ought to tackle at present is to correct the negative imagery of Islam that is so cleverly pasted by anti-Muslims, to redefine terrorism and to educate international public opinion about the causes and effects of the so called terrorism, the status that Talibans and Osama Bin Laden have acquired, anti-US/UK feelings and Muslim people’s strong reaction against the US/UK’s current actions. Pakistan also has to explain a range of difficulties that it is facing. Pakistan has to take this lead since it is closet to the disaster in the region and now has a very high profile due to its strategic importance and its intrinsic socio-culture and religious bonds with Muslims in Afghanistan.

I feel there is a pressing need to appoint a capable person with the sole responsibility to actively and effectively present the ‘Muslim case’ to the national and international masses. Inspired by the recent TV interviews, I would like to suggest Imran Khan for this job because:

• he is a house hold name around the world
• he is well respected as being a Muslim, honest and interested in improving the quality of human life
• he has valuable first-hand knowledge of British society
• he confidently and effectively interacts with top people in the UK, the chief supporter of US and opinion-maker for Europe
• he can argue and pitch at a level which easily captures the
  mind of European people

Mr President, it would be professionally sound to urgently develop what I have honestly suggested and to appoint the best person for the task of this high level public relations responsibility, irrespective of who he is or what party he belongs to.

I send you my good wishes