To say the least, Mr. Khan’s floor crossing has filled the domestic politics with a new vigor and enthusiasm. The party politics had, sort of died down after the Liberal’s leadership convention couple of months ago. Mr. Khan has managed to agitate a rather sleepy and lethargic domestic political scene such that the papers and political and religious organizations are scrambling to comment on the implications of this defection on the domestic current affairs.  

I myself, a Liberal supporter, do not approve of Mr. Khan’s jumping the ship, but I will not hold it against him as he has merely exercised his rights and freedom of choice. In case the voters in his constituency do not approve of Mr. Khan’s decision, they can let him know about it in the next election – it is simple as that.  

Certain segments of the community are impatiently waiting for the report that Mr. Khan has submitted to PM’s office. The demands for the report are getting louder and louder and now include various insinuations about its contents including personal attacks on Mr. Khan. Since the report has been submitted to the PM’s office, only that office can decide when and how much of the report to be released to the public, Mr. Khan can hardly be held responsible for the delay. Furthermore, as has been suggested by many, there is a strong likelihood that Mr. Khan’s findings and recommendations may not be exactly in line with the Conservative’s policies and plans for the Middle East. If this is the case, even that cannot be held against Mr. Khan. 

In principle, I support the article by Ms. Siddiqui (of MCC) with the exception of the use and the implication of the term ‘Islamist’, the term I do not comprehend well as the breadth and the depth of this word is mostly undefined, often used to express derogatory or rhetorical meanings to assert disapproval of certain groups or individuals. I wish intelligent people would refrain from the use of such terms. I quite agree with Ms. Sidiqui’s statement:  "The attacks on Wajid Khan have very little to do with policy and the merits of his Middle East trip; it is more to do with a sense of misguided jealousy many xxxxxxxx  feel when seeing a secular Muslim MP being chosen to advice the Prime Minister”.

(I have edited out the word ‘Islamists’ and replaced it with Xs). 

In today’s Toronto Sun, Greg Weston in his article titled: “New Tory Lemon” has this to say: “There was also the not-so-trivial issue that Khan was not exactly a scholar on the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- he had sold cars in Toronto and flown fighter jets in the Pakistani air force before that”.

Mr. Khan may not have been a scholar on the Middle East, is Ms. Condi Rice a scholar on the subject, if so, why do we not see any resolution of the issues in the region?

In the article, Weston further writes:

“One reason the PM's folks may be reluctant to retrieve the elusive report from the recycling bin is the following comment Khan made while still a Liberal, speaking about Harper's reaction to the Israel-Lebanon conflict”.

"From the machinations of the past week, however, it has become obvious that Canada's attempts to create its own strong and independent voice in the global arena, and the chance to act as the honest broker, are in danger of being squandered by the foreign policy maneuvers of the Conservative government."

I quite agree with the stance Mr. Khan took on the Conservatives policy on Afghanistan. The Conservatives are in for a rude awakening, similar to what the Soviets went through in the 1980 and the British, some 100 years earlier.

Weston may not be aware that similar to many other countries, Pakistani  military officers are trained in international politics, in particular, the hot spots around the world. They are mostly intelligent, disciplined, well structured and organized individuals. I would like to think that Mr. Khan possesses most of those traits. I strongly disagree with Weston that the Conservatives have received a lemon.

Javed I. Chaudry