drone

This is what I always thought about Imran Khan and told everyone:

If Imran Khan is upright, he doesn’t stand a chance to get elected from this system, if however, he succeeds in mastering the system to get into power, he could win, but later that wouldn’t make much difference for us..

That was one of the dilemma, for me while deciding to vote or not to vote. And one of my apprehension of voting PTI as well. Check out his politics: He started off as a staunch supporter of dialogue with the Pakistani Taliban. ? He also believes there should be no military operations in FATA (pakistan), branded by Washington as the main hub of Taliban and Al Qaeda militants plotting attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2012, PTI held a peace march towards South Waziristan to register a powerful protest against drone attacks in Pakistan, where at least 30 anti-drone activists from the US participated. I’m really, he thinks he can go against US policy and get elected in Pakistan? And that too before getting elected ? Pervaiz Musharraf joined hands with US policies, came to power and then only circumvented and gradually moved over to Pakistan’s interest. Imran Khan first started talking against the popular vote of MQM, then went quiet on the topic. Raising questions against the Army and then doing away with that as well. Finally, he learnt a bit more of Pakistani politics and brought in old political stalwarts. But eventually in the 2013 election again, he couldn’t understand, that pakistanis have been voting on the basis of race since 4-5 decades. He also failed to learn that there’s a strong global (US, UK) and regional (Saudi) influence for keeping their status quo in Pakistan. It would have been shrewd of him, if he had made alliance beforehand with the like minded parties (even if partially) and joined hands in the greater interest of Pakistan and had a plan to minimize rigging in election and come into power, instead of trying for a freehand ride. Clean-sweep, is something hard to come by, in a democracy, specially in a country as uneducated as ours, with so many ethnicity based politics. He learnt a lot in the last 2 elections, but not enough (read: corruption). When people say he lacks experience, that’s what they actually mean 😉 He should be happy, he wasn’t blown away, neither put behind bars. The all powerful in the country, gave him a free ride.

Another important point to mention here, the educated ‘awam’ (public) wanted a shortcut (read: revolution) and end of all evils, through him, without any sacrifice or effort to correct the basics first, like education, elimination of feudalism, racism, impatience, injustice, integrity, etc. People who did not vote PTI, must have been scared, that how come Imran Khan is going to save them from the feudal lords and the evils of injustice and the thugs of other political parties, when they grew up seeing that threat close by. It’s the same mentality, when you ask poor people to get education, they reply back, yeah right, as if that gets us job in this corrupt system, where jobs are distributed through quota only or there aren’t any jobs out there even for the educated, instead there are many blue color jobs, so why get education. They know well, that leaders have been changing in every government, but their conditions never improved. So, the point is, people would not trust you, unless, you have a clear-cut plan for short-term solution to their immediate problems like, jobs, electricity, safety, health, as well as long term solution to overcoming root cause challenges of the country, like feudalism, injustice, corruption, etc.

It is an irony, that when we are fed-up of our corrupt system, yet we seek to change the government, instead of the system.

I myself got carried away, by my friend’s enthusiasm and belief, and not to mention, Imran Khan’s charisma, personality (an appeal to the youth), cricketing history, charity work (cancer hospital), debating skills and passion and energy to beat the evil without any fear, kind of blinded me of the ground realities. And despite the fact that Pervaiz Musharraf is put behind bars by the current govt and Asif Zardari is at the helm of power, yet I almost believed that we could’ve a free and fair election. Nevertheless, it is a good start though, specially looking at people’s activism and taking part themselves in bringing the change, which resulted in Imran Khan securing third place in terms of electorates, while last time he only managed to win one seat. That is a good progress, by any political standards, for someone who’s not a veteran politician and getting such response from the general public, which again is not educated to a large extend. This makes it a great precedent in Pakistani politics, of competing election with honesty and merit and would go a long way, specially as our Youth get more informed.