’Tis the season to rally

The dynamics of political gatherings in Pakistan

Public rallies and meetings are integral to Pakistani politics. These are meant to display organizational skills and mobilisational capacity of the party and build psychological pressure on political adversaries. Public meetings demonstrate party activism but attendance in the meeting is no guarantee that the party will be equally successful in the elections. All those attending a public meeting do not necessarily vote for the party; some may not vote at all.

Though the moving spirit of any public rally are the party hard core, a large number of those attending such meetings are on a free trip for a day or afternoon with friends out of town or village. It is like going to a festival for some fun.

Currently, Pakistan is in the grip of public rallies. All major political parties have held rallies over the last couple of months. Islamic parties and groups have also shown their street power from time to time in different parts of the country. All these public meetings have been well attended with a fully mobilised and slogan-mongering people that respond to the calls of the speaker. Some of these meetings may suffer from poor organisation but it is not possible to talk of poor attendance in any public rally held over the last three-four months. Does this mean all these parties, i.e., mainstream, ethnic and Islamic, are equally popular? The answer is a categorical no; their electoral strength varies.

There is a method to holding of public rallies. The central leadership of the party decides about the holding of public meeting and its scale. There is a clear division of labour for such meetings. The central leadership makes the necessary arrangement for public meeting in consultation with local leaders, i.e. publicity, venue, seating and other arrangements, stage and public address system, lights and power supply and who will speak on the occasion. The local and district level leadership is assigned the task of bringing people to the public meeting. They cover all the expenses of transport and food for the people travelling to the meeting venue. Financial incentives are also used selectively to encourage people to go to meetings. There have been instances of the people complaining that the promise of financial rewards for attending the public rally was not fulfilled. Flags and banners are also prepared at the local level.

At times, rival local factions in a party compete for showing to the central leadership as to who brings more people. This type of competition is quite common close to the general elections because rival local factions show their mobilisational capacity, including the covering of expenses, for claiming party ticket in the elections. In some instances the central party organization pays transport cost for bringing people to the rally. Some rallies offer free food and drink, gifts for children, free party flags and women hand painting with mehndi for free. These practices have increased the cost of public rallies but more and more people go to such festival-cum-political rally.

One common practice is that transport drops the people at some walking distance from the venue of public meeting. They march towards the meeting venue while chanting slogan with their local leaders in the lead. In one instance a leader decided to lead his men on a horseback. However, he fell down because he had no experience of horse riding.

There is a noticeable increase in women participation which is ensured by women party activists. Women also engage in sloganeering and dancing. The MQM took the lead to hold first all-women massive public meeting in Karachi. A good number of women with very young children attended this rally. The major political parties have prepared a range of party anthems that are played in the public meeting.

Three factors explain sudden rise in the frequency of public meetings. First, the success of public meetings by Imran Khan during October-December 2011 built strong pressure on the PML(N) which began to hold rallies mainly in the Punjab to show its strength and neutralize Imran Khan’s popularity. Second, Islamic parties and militant groups engaged in public meetings and marches against the backdrop of American attack on the Salala border-post with tacit encouragement from Pakistan’s security establishment. They created a new anti-American and pro-Taliban forum, i.e. the Defa-i-Pakistan Council and threatened to disrupt American/NATO supplies through Pakistani territory if Pakistan’s government reopened the transit facilities. Third, the judgment of the Supreme Court against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has increased political confrontation because the PML(N) views it as a new opportunity to dislodge the federal government. By supporting the Supreme Court the PML(N) is claiming moral high ground to pursue its political agenda against the PPP. Imran Khan’s Tehreek-i-Insaf is also supporting the Supreme Court as a part of its campaign against the PPP. This has built strong pressure on the PPP that has decided to respond by holding public rallies targeting the PML(N).

The holding of public rallies is a democratic right. However, if this right is not used with responsibility, such rallies can undermine democracy. The current mood of public rallies of the PML(N) and the PPP appears to have crossed the limits of democratic decency. These public meetings have become a personalized fight between the Sharif brothers and Zardari-Gilani supporters. There is very little beyond mud-slinging and name-calling in the meetings. The problems are mentioned only to blame the other side rather than to suggest solutions.

The attitude of the Chief Minister of the Punjab and his close allies is disappointing because they are encouraging people to resort to violence. Imran Khan, a self-proclaimed crusader for rectifying everything that has gone wrong in Pakistan, hardly goes beyond bitter criticism of the PPP and the PML(N).

The highly charged political discourse of the leaders threatens the long-term political stability and societal harmony. If the political leaders spend all their energy in trading charges and counter-charges with each other, the future of democracy becomes more uncertain.

The PML(N) and the PPP have the major responsibility to sustain democracy and work towards coping with Pakistan’s faltering economy and international isolation. It is not merely the PPP that is going to lose if the present anarchic trends continue the PML(N) will have nothing left to rule. The unrestrained public discourse of the political leaders is pushing the country towards the brink.

The writer is an independent political and defence analyst.