The election rhetoric

• Nawaz and his contemptuous narrative

With months left before the country goes to polls, the political arena is quite hot with activity. Almost every political party is active one way or the other. Some are desperately attempting to keep their party in line whereas some are busy taking pledges of allegiance from their loyalists. The revolutionaries do remaistylen in the news every day however serious restructuring needs to be done, in light of the Lodhran tragedy for them.

The essence of PTI’s slogan has already been done away with by embracing ghosts of the political past and more recently by fielding Ali Khan Tareen as the party’s candidate in the by-election. The ticket award to Tareen’s son cemented the idea of hereditary politics being present within PTI. The same lineal politics Khan first stood against. Lambasting the Bhuttos in Sindh and the Sharif family in Punjab, Imran Khan on more than one occasion, categorically, stated that his sons will not inherit PTI and will not be a part of politics.

The people are yet to witness introduction of something new, as promised. Even a clear bias as to the interpretation of both the judgements is quite evident. Where at one place MNS is labelled as ‘Na-ahal’, even by the media houses, flagrantly, supporting PTI, on the other Jahangir Tareen remains the heartbeat of the Insaafians and is not considered ‘Na-ahal’ in a context similar to that of Nawaz. Even more so, Imran Khan’s own statement of removing from the party whosoever is disqualified and later failing to act upon it goes another step in damaging his own political self. Such hypocritical attitude and the lack of impartiality is not only wooing away the voters but is also going to cost PTI yet another election. Jahangir Tareen alone has damaged PTI’s chances of winning the election the most. Firstly by remaining an integral part of PTI despite being ousted by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of Pakistan, the same court that sent MNS packing, and secondly by deploying his son in the ballot.

The educated class considers the judiciary of today to be bold and independent, capable enough of taking on even the most notorious of characters

Many of you must have seen Wajahat Saeed Khan’s video circulating on social media, in all honesty the man has given Imran Khan an eye-opener. He is absolutely right in pointing out that Imran Khan needs to wake up. Khan needs to get on from the high he currently lives in and needs to embrace reality. Nawaz has been ousted. Yes indeed he has. But that alone isn’t going to fill the ballot boxes with PTI stamped voting slips. By the time Pakistanis will use the power of their thumb it will be more than a year since the infamous ouster. Nobody will care about the ouster on their own. A narrative needs to be built. Khan needs to give the people something to believe in.

Something similar to Nawaz, who continues to smear the judiciary with derogatory remarks which seem to be quickening their pace each passing day. Lately, Mian Sahib is of the view that the thumbs of the people of Lodhran broke the finger of the umpire. These coupled with the all-time favourite “Mujhe Kyun Nikala” are all hollow slogans with no basis whatsoever. Again, nobody cares. ‘Roti Kapra Makan’ remains unfulfilled almost 40 years after it was first introduced, yet it became the bedrock for Bhutto’s rise to power. Our populous is hungry for such slogans.

Nawaz Sharif on the other hand is busy preparing for his campaign. By the looks of it, he seems to have already launched his unofficial campaign. For the past so many days he has been addressing public gatherings almost on a daily basis. With his beloved daughter standing at his side his tirade against the judiciary seems to be working for him. Despite appearing before an accountability court to answer for alleged corrupt practices, the people remain dispassionate about it. The N-supporters couldn’t care less. Their leader is being marginalised and singled out solely because he was serving the nation’s interest and certain quarters couldn’t tolerate him. This is what they are made to believe and that too quite successfully.

Imran Khan remains pre-occupied clarifying rumors about his personal life and his leaders remain busy defending him in his marital escapades. Yes, it is none of our business what he does in his personal life. But he needs to understand that by becoming a beacon of politics cannot remain so distant about his personal self. The common man thrives to know what sort of a person he is going to vote for. Even in the most rural of areas where education has never cast its shadow, the voters judge a potential candidate by the way he leads his personal life. A shadow of inconsistency in any manner may cost the candidate his election. Similarly, these marriage shenanigans might cost Khan the 2018 election.

A lot many people fail to comprehend how Nawaz was able to build a narrative against the judiciary. Let us simplify it. The educated class considers the judiciary of today to be bold and independent, capable enough of taking on even the most notorious of characters. What we all miss out is the fact that the lower judiciary remains smudged with inefficiency and even incompetency. A normal trial takes a decade to reach its logical conclusion and a rather significant portion of people who have been the victim of vexatious litigations do not hold the judges in high esteem. On the contrary they tend to be against them and those who feel their rights have not been protected turn on even more ferociously against them.

Existing supporters aside, these are the sort of people who feel like they can relate to Nawaz and the same tend to support him in his contemptuous narrative. The way things are transpiring, it looks like as if we might have to endure the lion, in one form or another, for another tenure and might also have to undergo a fresh round of ‘Dharnas’.