Let’s not forget, we met these polls only because Imran Khan broke a vicious cycle that had this country in a loop since the inception of parliamentary politics in Pakistan.
He did something that was longing to be done since ages, something that was right, something that was so simple yet no one had the courage to do. He went after his own men, men who betrayed him. He stepped up to kill either the horse or the trading. And hence we see these elections.
Starting my journalistic career in the second last year of Musharraf’s exodus, I’m lucky to have, reported, witnessed and tasted a little bit of everything in my short journey till now. A little bit of dictatorship and a little bit of democracy.
A little bit of PPP, a little bit of PMLN and a little bit of PTI. And during this diverse journey, it was witnessed first hand, how horses used to trot across the floor in one season and dance back in the following. And it took me a long time to understand why no one did anything about it, but Bilawal took longer. This is how Bilawal got to know what horse trading was, it was 2019.
Why was it so difficult for previous parties to call out their own people that betrayed them? Because it would weaken their own party. It would jeopardize constituencies that already were under their name. It meant expelling a winner of your party and re-entering elections in an area where one had already won. Just like what is happening now.
Khan went after his own people for openly siding with PDM in the no-confidence motion against him. Though the members were not used in the count, the verdict that came made way for these elections. MPA’s that sided with Hamza Shahbaz were de-seated and re-elections were called in 20 constituencies. Remember these seat were already won by PTI, but members defected and went with PMLN to elect Hamza as CM.
So what Khan did was get his own members deseated through court and ECP, weakening himself but going back to the public. So, logically and morally speaking, these seats should be secured back by PTI easily. But its not as easy as we think.
Politics of narratives are only found in urban centres. In villages its all about families and castes. If the Bhatti’s are on PTI’s side, the Tarar’s would automatically side with PMLN. If the Rajput quit PTI and join PMLN, the Shah’s would automatically quit PMLN and join PTI. There are some constituencies in this election where literally candidates were just swapped. The ones which were with PTI are now with PMLN and the ones with PMLN are now with PTI. So where exactly is the fight between good and evil?
This election was supposed to be between people who think crossing floors in assembly is legal against the ones who think it shouldn’t be done. But its not, its still about families and castes. This hypes up the election even more, no one can be certain what the result of this election would be.
It’s pretty difficult dancing through the pickets of domestic politics to achieve a national narrative. Which is why it looks magical when it connects. Because its hard to connect. Which brings us back to why parties don’t go after members who betray them in assembly polls. Only a mad man would do such a thing.
But finally its been done. This country is gearing up to see something that they have never seen before.
Never had this country see members being deseated by their own party, never had this country seen by-elections on so many seats, never had this country seen such an aggressive by-election campaign and never had this country come so far out in search of political correctness, thank you Imran Khan.
He is a Pakistani journalist, documentary producer and teaches journalism at various universities in Lahore. He is a silver medalist in MPhil Mass communication and has reported and edited for a number of English print media organizations in Pakistan.
A good read!