The Roman Caesars held games and distributed free bread to keep the populace amused. The Sharifs distribute laptops and construct showy projects to sell themselves politically. Closing down major cities is easier said than done. It is no joke closing down Faisalabad and Lahore. You can’t do it by verbal ballistics alone. You need street power for it and the PTI has amply demonstrated, time and again, that where once it lacked this essential ingredient now it has plenty of it. Look at the way Imran just gives a call for a rally or a shutdown and his cadres and activists get to work without need for further motivation or instruction. This is political power, which once Bhutto had in West Pakistan and the Awami League and Sheikh Mujib in East Pakistan. The Sharifs have only the Punjab Police and this is a force which stands demoralised. Small wonder the PTI has inaugurated a new era in national politics. It has ended the alienation of the politically disengaged, that vast section of the population which found no connection with politics and was consequently on a rudderless sea, its frustration with prevailing conditions finding its only outlet in the national pastime of cynicism. By galvanising the young, the middle classes, the disenfranchised and the female half of the Pakistani population Imran and the PTI have brought about this change. Commitment, and passionate commitment at that, has taken the place of the earlier nihilism, something which can be seen in the PTI’s jalsas and rallies How does anyone make the Sharifs understand all this? As agents of Gen Zia’s reactionary rule, they not only swam with the tide but profited the most from it. Their rise to political and financial prominence is rooted in the political necessities of that dispensation. How are they to realise that the tide has turned? The ongoing movement which we are witnessing is just giving expression to long-muted, long-silenced, frustration and despair. But the frustration and despair were there, interwoven into Pakistan’s social and political fabric. And much of these feelings arose from the politics represented by the Sharifs and the incomparable Zardari, two sides of the same coin. Vast acquisition of wealth by both the Sharifs and the PPP leadership softened by palliatives or lollipops – in the form of laptops and yellow taxis – to keep the masses distracted. For those who think this state of affairs can last indefinitely there is much to learn. The old order is breaking down. This is increasingly evident although it is our privilege to recognise or ignore this reality.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 06:23:16 +0000
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