PTI, JUI-F stage mass rallies as campaigning turns ‘right’
The election campaign is full steam ahead with two mass rallies catching the eye and ear on Sunday. While the Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) compounded around the Minar-e-Pakistan for its Islam Zindabad rally, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) held another large gathering in Swat to kick off its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) election campaign. Both rallies were not short of numbers, however hallow the promises may appear to be.
Imran Khan’s narrative began with what some media called an “I have a dream,” similar to Martin Luther King’s famous speech. But while King’s speech addressed the issue of racial equality, Imran’s continued to remind us of his single-minded obsession with his own self. Apparently he dreamt “four months ago that PTI had swept the general elections,” but it appears he did not dream much more. His concrete promises reminded much more of his past: to construct a hospital in KP like the much praised Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital (SMKH) in Lahore. His suggestion that his experience running SKMH was enough for him to fix the entire health system does not say much; but of course that is more experience than other contenders to the political throne. Imran’s basic rhetoric remains populist: denying MNAs/MPAs funds to dole out patronage and converting lavish governor houses into facilities for common people. The numbers at PTI rallies continue to impress and there are expectations that for once these may turn into votes on the ground.
Similar may not be said of Fazlur Rehman’s party whose 100,000 strong showing of beards and turbans filling up the Minar-i-Pakistan, like he did the Quaid-e-Azam Mausoleum earlier in 2012, showed the rising strength of the religious right-wing to stake a claim in the political system and political process. Fazlur Rehman promised that the strong showing of his party showed that people must now turn to his party, in opposition to others, but apart from making some electoral gains in the KP, his party does not appear to be capable of staking an electoral dent. That does not mean, however, that it cannot produce mass gathering; as the thousands of Deobandi madrassas that have sprouted around the country in the last three decades form a ready cadre for the JUI-F and other right-wing groups.
Though perhaps there are encouraging signs in the Deobandi turn to politics. Those sitting in JUI-F rallies today were considered the same people who would form the cadre of right-wing militant groups. If they wish to stake a claim in the political system, it must be encouraged, but with caution. “Islam Zindabad” is a slogan that has been tried before. Most notably in the Zia era – and if the right-wing gains political power through the ballot, and not the boot, there may be a repeat of the suffocation of the 1980s.
