Imran managed to do what all his political adversaries feared the most: he got together an incredible array of people in a rare show of strength and grassroots popularity under the shadow of Lahore’s Minar-e-Pakistan. While this may be a cause for immense celebration for the PTI and its large and diverse support bank, it throws up the most daunting of challenges that Imran has ever faced in his charismatic life: how to keep the momentum going, spread it throughout the country and ensure that this mammoth raw support is actually transformed into votes on the day of the elections.
No one ever doubted Imran’s appeal to the masses. His numerous conquests in the cricket field, his state-of-the-art cancer hospital, his contribution to creating the Namal University and his extensive and untiring efforts in the field of philanthropy are household subjects which have endeared him not only to the youth of the country, but to everyone who holds Pakistan and its interests supreme. But the political pundits had always drawn a line between his unprecedented national and international stature and the prospects of his success in the political arena. Imran, in one stroke on October 30, has erased that divide and has landed centre stage of the political world with a bang as his detractors are seen scampering for a place to hide.
A day after the historic rally, a friend called from Lahore. He started by reiterating that he had not been a PTI fan, but still decided to be part of the gathering. He reached the ground around 3.30 p.m. and found it almost full with people pouring in ceaselessly. He managed to find a place nor very far from the stage. To his right was a young boy who had travelled all the way from some far-off part of the Swat valley. It was his passion alone that had brought him there. On his right was a young girl, equally passionate about the Imran appeal, who was studying at LUMS. At his back sat a former governor of the State Bank with his family while in front of him were people representing varied social strata of the society. There was one common factor that set all of them apart: their natural exuberance and enthusiasm to be part of this epoch-making event. On his way back, he found the streets and roads around the arena choked for miles. By a fair guess, there were as many people who waited outside as there were inside the ground.
The Minar-e-Pakistan gathering has overnight changed the political landscape of the country. Pundits who were not giving Imran a chance in a million are now openly acknowledging the arrival of a new force in politics that represents the dominant and inalienable will of the people. They have remained buried under the putrid debris of the hereditary politics of a corrupt coterie of rulers for over six decades now. In the process, they have seen their country being systematically plundered and its wealth stolen to fill personal coffers. They have witnessed the collapse of its institutions and the bartering of its sovereignty for a few crumbs. They have seen more and more of its people sink below the poverty line. Instances of suicides and self-immolations have increased alarmingly as also those of people selling off their children or their kidneys so that they could survive a little longer. Rule of law is scorned at and judicial injunctions made a mockery of. The cabinet is pockmarked by individuals granted reprieve through presidential pardons and those awarded doctorates in recognition of embracing as allies people who have introduced the culture of extortion, fear and revenge-killing.
It may take a while longer to see the back of this corrupt lot, but the Lahore gathering has rekindled the hope factor among people who had just about lost it. They recognise that the incumbent system has been rendered dysfunctional and is in need of serious repair, even overhaul, and they see in Imran a person who has the credentials, the integrity, the courage and the commitment to lead this surge. They are laden with this seething desire to break the chains of slavery and start living like free people again as was promised to them when Pakistan Resolution was passed at the point where Imran gathered his vast galaxy of support. It was like re-living that day, and its boundless passion, back in 1940.
There are challenges that Imran and his vast support-bank face. There is enough substance in his message, enough appeal in his person and enough hope in the future that he promises. He wants to replace the derelict system with a delivery-oriented mechanism that is based on getting the best to turn the country around and, with it, the fate of its people. The patwaris have to go, the thana culture has to be replaced and violence has to give way to harmony. Pakistan should be at peace with itself and its destiny investing in transforming the fate of its people who have languished endlessly in the shadows of intellectual, economic and emotional despotism and suffered at the hands of immeasurable misery and deprivation.
All of a sudden, post October 30, the vast landscape is resonating with hope that, after all, the days of sufferance may be over and the moment of triumph may be near. Not lost to symbolism, the day after the Lahore rally, Imran took off for China on an official visit. Among the numerous factors that have plagued Pakistan’s growth, one has been its lopsided dependence on the US. The Lahore gathering and the China visit promise a change that Pakistan and its people have started dreaming about.
The writer is a political analyst and a member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He can be reached at raoofhasan@hotmail.com