This is an article I wrote in response to an incident I witnessed last week. It was published in The News on 1st March 2012. How I was able to trace the owner of the car and get his details will be the topic of another blog. I have been asked to keep the identities of the individuals and institutions who helped me trace Munawar Hussain secret. Nonetheless, I extend my gratitude to them for helping me out.
After this article was published, someone tweeted me the link of a letter the FX driver has written about this incident to a blogsite. You can read that here.
Dear Captain…
In July 2008 I walked into the Alexander Fleming Building at Imperial College London to hear you speak. Those were dark, gloomy days for Pakistan. Friends, acquaintances and fellow countrymen were dying in bomb blasts and the economy was nose-diving. Your lecture was a breath of fresh air: finally someone spoke of optimism!
I remember the atmosphere after the lecture was so charged that there was a dearth of pens and paper to sign up for PTI membership. I’ll confess: when I walked into the hall I had my doubts but like many others I came out a believer and have never looked back. I found hope for Pakistan that day.
Since then I have defended you and your policies against established political parties, liberal tirades and even technocratic rants. Even if at times I have my doubts, I put my faith in your better judgement. You see, for me and many others, who believe in you, ‘change’ is not merely a slogan, it means everything to us. ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’, said Mahatma Gandhi. So here I am: respecting traffic rules, standing in queues, holding open doors for people, using ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’ more often and trying to be more patient when interacting with fellow countrymen. Bringing about change is hard and I feel I’m doing my part no matter how insignificant it might be.
No one could have predicted in 2008 that a few years down the line, your support would transcend class barriers and ethnicities in our highly polarised society. The recent surge in your popularity has given hope to your supporters that your vision for Pakistan is finally being shared by thousands of others.
Unfortunately, this surge has also attracted a host of opportunists who are using you and the party for their own political ambitions. The idea of ‘change’ is a complete anathema to them for they have only joined the party to prolong their own status quo. Not only are their views alien to what the PTI believes in, they are also giving the party a bad name. When you say that the party will issue tickets only to the ‘clean’, I hope you will be able to filter out all such opportunists.
I witnessed an incident on Feb 20, which features one such opportunist. It involved a three vehicle convoy and a Suzuki FX opposite F-9 Park in Islamabad. The combination of land cruisers, reckless driving and Imran Khan posters pointed to the convoy belonging to a party leader. The FX carried a driver and a lady passenger.
In a risky over-taking manoeuvre from the left, the last vehicle of the convoy, a Toyota Corolla (ICT PY 153 Islamabad) slammed into the FX. As the FX veered to the right, its broken lights flew past my car which was right behind it. Any decent individual would have pulled over to check if the passengers in the other car were alright but not this driver. In a wanton display of badmaashi the convoy carried on as if nothing had happened.
The next day with the help of some concerned citizens I was able to track the owner of the car, Munawar Hussain, son of Ghulam Rasool along with his contact details. Without telling him why I was calling, I was able to establish that this was Chaudhry Munawar Hussain Tarar, ex-MPA from Mandi Bahuddin. I have never been so disgusted to hear about someone’s joining the party as I was when he boasted that he was in the PTI.
Not only is Munawar Hussain an ex-MPA, his father Ghulam Rasool and brother Zafar Ullah Tarar have been MNAs. In recent months both brothers have joined the PTI. Are these the agents of change, my Captain? And what of justice for the FX driver? If I had been travelling in that FX and this incident happened to me while my mother/ sister/ wife/ daughter was riding alongside, I would never have voted for the PTI in my life.
I would understand if that FX driver chooses not to now. So while commoners like me try to bring about a positive change in our lives, the political elite continues to maintain the status quo under a new (read: your) banner. Very unfair, don’t you think? I remember you acknowledging, at your Karachi rally, Zulfiqar Ali, who had come all the way from Dera Ghazi Khan to attend, financing his trip by selling his mobile phone. Now the FX driver awaits justice. The ball is in your court Captain and your supporters are watching.
truckwala 
This is a calculated move to disheart educated people that you have no place in PTI and old elite has taken up the driving seat.
In advance countries where special training is given to emergecy vehicle drivers even there fatal mistakes happen, myself came across police emergecy car that I have to pull up in great rush to give way and once I damaged my wheel. Does that mean I should leave Britian and should go to Congo (of PML N) where there is no concept of personal rights or freedom.
Yes sir you’re absolutely right. I am actually a Zionist posing as a Pakistani and cooking up stories to draw Pakistan’s educated lot away from PTI. You got me sir, I’ve been exposed. I must run back to my fellow conspirators on Mars.
Dear Who-ever-you-are-who-wrote-the-deleted-comment
Lets talk about this face to face?
A very eye opening reply, if there is any truth to it. It suggests that we have another Zardari in the making with the audacity to be self righteous and propagate a self accentuating mantra of anti-corruption hypocrisy. Raises the question of whether you are to be trusted Mr SD. What say you?
why did you remove the previous reply?
Ummm the party conducted an investigation and established that the incident occurred and the MNA was pulled up to apologise and compensate the driver.