Sometimes you simply can’t help feeling sorry for Imran Khan. Faced with numerous scandals (for which he blames various mafias against whom he apparently can’t take any action), and millions of jobless people out on the streets, he is lucky that he has managed to remain in power.

But he can’t get over the fact that he used to speak vociferously against the policies of the past government, but today he is doing the same things that were being done in the past. Many such videos of him have surfaced recently, in which he vehemently criticized the past government for doing what his government is doing today.

He used to say, for instance, that every time fuel energy prices are increased, the extra money goes into the pockets of the finance minister and his boss. But fuel and energy prices have also gone up during his reign a few times, so should we assume that he and his finance minister are reaping the benefits of the prices? Corruption during the past government was supposed to be costing the nation a billion dollars a month, and he said it would be eliminated after PTI came to power. It’s evident that corruption is still rampant, as there would have been an extra twenty four billion dollars in the national kitty if corruption had been contained.

Take, for instance, his demand that the then Railways Minister should resign immediately. “In any civilized country, the railways minister has to resign or is sacked after a train accident”, he thundered on the container six years ago. We have had many major train accidents in the nearly two years of his reign, yet the Railways Minister continues to be one of the government’s spokesmen, talking about everything but his ministry, and he has never been asked to resign. Even his colleagues must be wondering what hold he has over the Dear Leader that he can get away with it.

Remember how he demanded to know why thirty five rupees were being charged and given to PTV? “Every month PTV licence fees are taken from the poor. Where do all these billions go? We shall go to the courts,” he yelled. And now his government has itself raised the TV licence fee to Rs. 100! I don’t think even Trump would ever have done anything like this.

And how can we forget what he said about dual nationality holders? “Those who have passports of other countries have taken oath to remain loyal to someone else, they cannot be loyal to Pakistan. We need people who will burn their boats, sell all their foreign property and bring everything they own abroad back to Pakistan and serve the country!” Now that some of his own advisors and associates have been found to be nationals of other countries, will he tell them to bring back their wealth and surrender their foreign nationalities? Or will he take a U-turn on this issue as well? His supporters of course will say he didn’t know anything, but if that is the case, he is not fit to lead the country. The German Chancellor Willy Brandt, for instance, resigned when one of his very minor staff members was found to be a spy. How can one believe that even after twenty two years of knowing them, Imran Khan didn’t know that they were dual nationals? How could he not have known that some of them and their wives own property abroad? Should he not ask them to prove that their foreign assets were legally acquired?

And that is not all. One of his ministers (Faisal Vawda) is reported to have done some fudging when submitting details to the Election Commission, declaring that he was not a dual national at the time, despite being a U.S. national at the time. This fact has been known for over six months now, yet the Dear Leader has not asked him to resign. In any civilized country, ministers would have resigned for much less than this. Would Mr. Jinnah have tolerated this kind of thing?