... aka
Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer...
's ability to retain his all-round innocence long into his political career the scene would have been bereft of excitement. Without him flaunting his political philosophy, many of the simpleton jokes that are cracked today would have gone un-cracked and the laughs would have remained un-laughed. The latest spurt has been caused by Mr Khan's attempt at creating greater political space for the Pak Taliban. On Wednesday he called for the opening of a Taliban office to facilitate a dialogue with the government. The suggestion opened the floodgates of 'proposals' of how the office should be set up and who should be setting it up: Imran Khan, who else?
Notwithstanding the general debate about the pros and cons of talks, from Mr Khan's pro-rehabilitation position the suggestion is a practicable one. To begin with, considering the growing closeness between the two and considering that time is of the essence here, Mr Khan could allow the Taliban the use of a few PTI offices. That, among other benefits, would relieve party activists of their uncomfortable state where they are only half out of the closet. While it would be too much to expect the offices of the good Taliban to be used to bring the bad ones in line through the issuance of show cause notices and warnings of fines, this is an opening for solving the most thorny issue: those who agree to open an office would qualify for the 'good' label and the few choosing to not avail of this great rehab offer would be immediately identified. They would then be liable to the ultimate ignominy -- a loud, direct slap on the wrist by Mr Khan who is so capable of administering it when he chooses to do so.