STRAIGHT-TALK
Election Outcome is a Mixed Bag of Hopes and Disappointments
By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada
Indeed there was never a dull moment in the just-concluded elections of Pakistan, 2013.
And there’s not a hint of excitement, expectations, fervour or fever dipping down now that the long-anticipated exercise is done with. All eyes are now riveted on what kind of government hogs the national stage to perform in the limelight of popular approbation.
The most convincing and impressive winners in the undertaking are the people of Pakistan. Defying the deadly challenge of the Taliban and their affiliate terrorists, the people of Pakistan came out in droves to let the whole world know that they are for democracy and loathe terrorism or radicalism of any dispensation.
More than 50 million — out of over 86 million of registered voters — turned up at the polls to brave the elements. A 60 percent-plus voter turnout was impressive by any reckoning; it put to shame voters in the established democracies of the West where anything close to a 50 percent turnout is regarded as good and positive.
The people’s enthusiastic participation in the polls was a resounding affirmation of their faith in democracy as their system of governance of choice. They have paid a horrendous price in blood — over 40,000 Pakistanis killed in acts of terrorism related to the so-called ‘war on terror’ — because of the monumental follies of their myopic leaders since 2002. Another 130 or so were killed in the pre-election period in violence related to electioneering. And yet they refused to be cowed down by pesky terrorists, or their like-minded affiliates, warning them of a doomsday scenario if they didn’t pay heed to them.
But with their courage and bravado categorically carved in granite, the question is did they make the right choice and choose the right party or people by exercising their franchise? Let’s see how they have performed in that department.
The election results, while richly deserving of kudos for the people for showing great backbone in the face of odds heavily weighted against them, have once again exposed the fault-lines running against the nation’s cohesiveness.
Even the most sanguine and mealy-mouthed political pundit can’t refute the jarring reality that Pakistan’s national unity just barely hangs there, precariously, by the skin of its teeth. Nothing illustrates it more convincingly, or jarringly, than the way the two larger provinces of the Federation of Pakistan — Punjab and Sindh — have voted.
Pakistan Muslim League, Nawaz Group (PML-N) has swept the board in Punjab but has failed to inspire voters in the rest of the provinces. The people of Punjab have voted for PML (N) largely because they see it as a guardian of their interests. By the same token, other provinces don’t find its credentials convincing for the safeguarding or promotion of their interests.
This has invited a barbed and below-the-belt compliment from MQM’s absentee-leader, Altaf Hussain, who has felicitated Mian Nawaz Shareef for emerging as Punjab’s undisputed leader.
Sindh, in contrast, has come up with the troubling scenario of a province divided right across the rural-urban cleavage.
PPP that lorded over the country for five years under Zardari’s thieving rule has performed only in rural Sindh, where its vote bank is still captive and safe. But in the rest of the country it has been wiped off the slate, right so for its banditry and rape of the national economy. It’s no longer a national party but has been driven into the narrow confines of rural Sindh.
MQM has managed to retain its hold over Karachi and Hyderabad, though its touted ‘massive vote-bank’ has been considerably dented. And its ‘victory’ of sorts has come, once again, courtesy of its lawless gangs storming polling stations and stuffing the ballot boxes with bogus votes. Documented and video evidence of its armed gangs violating the sanctity of polling stations and disrespecting the voters’ prerogative have been passed on to the Election Commission, aplenty.
It remains to be seen how much backbone there is in the EC to take these rabbles to task. As it’s, EC has been one huge disappointment in the whole process of elections. Right down from its doddering — and increasingly inane - Chief, the octogenarian Fakhroo Bhai, EC has failed to live up to the expectations of the people. It hasn’t shown any gumption, or willingness, to perform as a fully-independent or empowered body.
The people of Karachi have been robbed of their hankering to vote for change from the Mafioso that has held their city in its thrall as hostage for more than two decades. MQM is not a political party in the conventional sense; it’s more a mafia run, by remote control, by a Don who has been living in plush exile for more than twenty years but can pull the levers of raw power through his goons to terrorise the people of Karachi. Anyone doubting that need only look at how brazenly they have robbed the Karachiites of their vote.
To rub salt into the wounds of the people of Karachi, and those of Pakistan, the Don is threatening to unleash his goons if protest is raised against his thuggery. He has the gall to threaten Karachi’s ‘secession’ if he is obstructed in his anti-Pakistan activities.
But in a pleasant surprise, which is a first of its kind, the hardy Pathans of Khyber-Pakhtoon-khwa (KP) allowed no handicap to impede their steely resolve to vote in a party of real change.
KP voted solidly for Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) because it wanted to punish their traditional party —ANP — for having bartered away their dignity and honour for American dollars and patronage. ANP has been truly decimated, if not completely rubbed off the political landscape of Pakistan. It’s befitting comeuppance for a bunch of opportunists who had joined hands with Zardari’s PPP-led government to give a blank check to the Americans to pound the tribal areas of PK with impunity in their alleged pursuits of ‘terrorists.’ No other Pakistanis have paid a higher price of freedom than the hapless people of PK’s tribal belt.
So ANP has been routed and its rule of mendacity and corruption brought to a close by a people desperate for change in their status quo. And who could be more worthy of their hope and trust for change than Imran’s PTI. The routing of a stalwart like Ghulam Ahmed Bilor — who wrecked the Pakistan Railways as its minister —is emblematic of KP’s break from a corrupt and haunting past, while it’s also a manifestation of its hope for real change.
The election outcome, in a sense, is the result of the people’s referendum on performances of governments at both the federal and provincial levels.
Tables have been turned on Zardari and his robber-baron minions. Heads have rolled and humiliated at the hands of a people fed up with rampant corruption and, because of it, endemic shortages of the essentials of life — power, water, gas et al. — faced by the people throughout the PPP rule.
As a result of it, PPP has been cut to size. It’s no longer the All-Pakistan party founded by ZAB and nurtured by BB. It’s, now, as good as a rural-Sindh party of anti-people waderas.
Zardari’s slogan of ‘democracy being the best revenge’ has been turned on its head: the people of Pakistan, in their defence of democracy, have kicked out pseudo democrats who only dispensed corruption and injustice to them.
But the people of Sindh — in its hinterland — have, sadly, failed to invest in the kind of political savvy and maturity that the people of KP have come up with in spades. Voting in the tried-and-tested for another term is indicative of mental slavery and bankruptcy of intellect. The Zardari clan is in, so are many other rogues, knaves and scoundrels — such as Makhdoom Amin Fahim and the sick man of Sindh, Qaim Ali Shah.
Punjab has given its vote of confidence to the Sharif Bros. A powerful factor in PML-N emerging with a near-simple majority at the center — and a resounding two-thirds majority at the provincial level — is undoubtedly the track record of Shehbaz Sharif as Punjab’s Khadim-e-Ala. Much as some may cast aspersions of all stripes and colours on the younger Sharif, he did a commendable job as Punjab’s Chief Minister. His output was all the more impressive compared to the knaves and thieves of Sindh whose corruption-incorporated has taken Sindh — and Karachi, in particular — to dogs.
Imran Khan’s PTI may not have achieved the kind of spectacular results that his fawning admirers and followers may have dreamed of.
However, Imran’s contribution is more in the intangible than tangible. It may be hard to quantify at this early, post-election, stage. But what he has done is energise the youths of Pakistan and bring them into the political mainstream from which they had cut themselves off largely because of the petty shenanigans of vested-interest politicians.
What PTI has already achieved is considerable. It has uprooted a corrupt political mafia in KP and unnerved the denizens of traditional political order in all other provinces. With solid foundations laid, the future belongs to PTI and its legions of educated and enlightened youths whose commitment to Pakistan is beyond doubt. A young Pakistan is theirs for the taking whenever the country goes to the polls, again.
A PTI-led government in KP would be a good opportunity for Imran and his lieutenants to learn the ropes of governance and put in place their proto-type of a New Pakistan.
Nawaz Sharif, in the glare of sweet-victory, has done the right thing by going to Imran’s sick-bed. His taking the initiative for a modus-vivendi between his and Imran’s parties is welcome, given our feudal instinct to nurse deep grudges and animosities against rivals.
Nawaz should also make a visible effort to keep the hot-heads and adventurers of his party in check, lest they responded to the call of the wily Maulana Fazlur-Rehamn to rob PTI of its people-given mandate to form the next government in KP.
It’s PTI’s call to lead the people of KP who have overwhelmingly voted for a break from the status quo, of which the unprincipled JUI(F) chief is an adept practitioner. Nawaz could have a load of troubles on his hands if the Maulana is not checked in his Machiavellian and cavalier ways.
At the threshold of a new phase in its tortured tryst with democracy, Pakistan and its bemused people are poised critically between despair and hope. They have voted for democracy, rejected radicalism and orthodoxy and punished those who traded in corruption. It’s up to the leaders they have manifested their faith in to ensure that they are not disappointed, again.
- K_K_ghori@yahoo.com
(The author is a former ambassador and career diplomat)
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