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Press TV has conducted an interview with Kamran Bokhari, VP for Mideast & South Asian Affairs, Ontario about Imran Khan leading anti-government protests asking for the resignation of Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif.

Press TV: I’d like to get your reaction to claims made by our other guest Shahid Qureshi because while some claim that Khan never really had a significant number of seats and also international observers who’ve said this latest election has been the cleanest in the country’s history.

Bokhari: Exactly. I couldn’t respectfully disagree more with my co-panelist. There are a number of factors that can clearly prove that the kind of rigging that has been alleged by Mr. Khan and others just didn’t take place. It was impossible that would happen.

First of all the party that had just given up power and had appointed a new caretaker government lost miserably – I’m talking about the Pakistan Peoples Party that was in government.

The other thing as you said, international observers, Pakistani media organizations, Pakistani pollsters and what-not they all ooked at it and said this was the cleanest.

Did rigging take place at a tactical level? Of course there is always the possibility that that has happened. Despite the rigging Imran Khan’s party went from 1 seat to 35 in parliament; and on top of that took control of an entire province and its government.

So you can’t claim that there was rigging, but you want to be able to benefit from the fruits of that rigging. Even yesterday Mr. Khan cleverly said we are resigning from all provincial and federal parliaments, but the reality is he did it in a way that he knew that wasn’t the proper way so technically they haven’t resigned.

But he said we are not resigning from the government that we control. So Mr. Khan is making tall claims here and I think there is a need to move away from the emotional political discourse and to look at reality in its face.

Press TV: What is your reaction to our guest Shahid Qureshi’s comments bringing the Kashmir issue and Indian relations with Pakistan into the mix?

Bokhari: I just don’t know what all that has to do with what is going on right now, I mean, the Kashmir issue is there, nobody is saying the relationship with Kashmir is going to get hunky-dory tomorrow or in the near future or foreseeable future.

But the fact of the matter is if you look at what happened the tensions with India have not even been reported in the Pakistani media because of this overwhelming effect that the menagerie put together by Imran Khan and Dahr Chowdury has had on the national psyche.

It’s not even been reported the fact that the Pakistani Ambassador wanted to meet with Kashmiri dissident leaders and in reaction the Indians have called off secretary-level talks. That’s a major story, but it’s not because of this domestic situation.

I think we need to focus on this domestic situation because there is no use talking about anything else until this issue gets resolved. And if you look at the way the army, the ISI, the government, the opposition parties including Imran Khan’s own ally Jamaat-e-Islami, you know... there is now evidence that Imran Khan is not even listening to his allies who share government with him in KPK province.

And so... right now Imran Khan it seems is leading the charge and he has convinced his people that victory is at hand – and he defines victory as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif throwing in the towel. And that is creating a huge risk of violence.

So they are sitting in front of parliament and they are allowed to sit in front of the prime minister’s office... How long? How long before the crowds thin out or how long before desperation sets in and Imran Khan and his associates or their followers engage n violence?

This is the issue at hand that needs to be discussed.

Press TV: Our guest says Imran Khan is raising legitimate questions about electoral reform and that Nawaz Sharif has corruption to answer for and that the government did not attempt to negotiate with Imran Khan.

I believe the government did extend a hand, but you tell us your reaction to what Shahid Qureshi said there?

Bokhari: I think in the sense that the Sharif government took a long time to take this seriously and this is a criticism that is across the board by non-Partisan analysts that say look had you taken care of this back in December of January or when ever, it wouldn’t have reached this far.

And I think... I agree with him about Mr. Chowdury’s attitude, but I think the government miscalculated or it was a bad error in judgment when police tried to take down a group of protesters in Lahore that resulted in 14 deaths.

That is a serious issue the fact that the provincial law minister had to resign shows how worried the government was and still is.

So, yes there has been mishandling, but right now it’s Mr. Khan who is playing hard to get and frankly speaking I’ve been trying to analyze his behavior. It seems that he is caught between two worlds: one in which he wants to seek an exit strategy from all of this because he knows he has riled up a lot of people and he’s going to disappoint them and if he doesn’t disappoint them then he has to engage I action that’s not legal; and it could result in violence.

I don’t think Mr. Imran Khan wants to go that far so he’s trying to extract concessions; but on the other hand he’s also swayed by the rhetoric that he himself has spun up. So he’s a prisoner of his own rhetoric and his own mobilization at the same time.
So we’re looking at a very complex standoff and it will require a lot of political acumen on the part of at least the government and those surrounding the “seasoned” politicians that have joined the ranks of Imran Khan’s party - whom by the way are not clean by any stretch of the imagination either. So they should be advising him at this point on how to back down.

Press TV: Why are they not clean? Why do you say that, can you tell us the reasons?

Bokhari: Well, they face the same allegations that Mr. Shahid is talking about. Some of them are from the Pakistan Peoples Party; some of them are from Mr. Nawaz Sharif’s party; some of them are from other rival factions of the Muslim League who were with Mr. Musharraf...

It’s not as if we’re looking at a good versus evil scenario, it’s not. The reality is far grayer than most people want to believe.

Press TV: Can you answer to what Shahid Qureshi said and that will be the final statements from you?

Bokhari: I don’t think Mr. Sharif is looking at India or Afghanistan in his calculus. Right now it is about survival and it’s increasingly becoming so.

Prior to Imran Khan’s rally and this whole uprising he was trying to trying to find some way of establishing some form of civilian supremacy over the military therefore he could have allowed GEO-television to bad mouth the ISI chief – which I thought was uncalled for.

But this is a very complex game here and I think nobody is really looking strings beyond Pakistan.