A popular epitaph.

Byline: Asha'ar Rehman

PRIME MINISTER Imran Khan's remarks in parliament about Osama bin Laden a few days ago stirred a debate where the most efficient among his party loyalists found it impossible to defend him. The gaffe was just too big, cried out the detractors, who have found little reason to change the rather low view they have held of the PTI chief all along.

Even his biggest supporters in the press corps - who would be found inventing all kinds of explanations to counter the opposition's assaults - could at best put it down to a slip of the tongue. Which was rather disappointing, for this was an excellent opportunity for everyone to discuss how much respect we Pakistanis afforded to someone from among the famous company we enjoyed over decades.

Prime Minister Khan, inadvertently, called OBL a 'shaheed', to book the prime time slot on channels and social media forums for the next few days. It was only a bigger dilemma, the one that required trained Pakistani minds to think up scenarios of a government without Mr Khan and/or his PTI, which finally pushed the shaheeds into the background. The survivors for once snatched the attention from the martyrs.

These are not exactly the times for so-called neutral observers to write paragraphs that can be interpreted as favourable to the 'kaptaan'. The trend is to write about his failures, his unfulfilled promise and about yet one more betrayal of the people by a leader, lest these predictions about his fall come true. Likewise, in a given circle, it would be a very unpopular statement to make if it was to be said that the Pakistani prime minister's remarks about OBL might for once have represented the sentiment of a large number of his countrymen.

There are countless distressed souls wandering in this vast desert looking for the right ideology. Who is a 'shaheed' and who is not?

What would life be without its slips and the small clues these slips drop along the way? I would venture a bold guess and 'claim' that the hasty honorific just lavished on OBL sahib by our prime minister reflected the feeling of millions of Pakistanis who have as yet not been able to distinguish between one individual going down at the hands of foreign squads on Pakistani territory from another one taken out by another set of raiders from abroad. They lack the facility and clarity of, say, a Haqqani in choosing the right foreigners to align with at the right time.

There are countless distressed souls wandering in this...

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