pti – My Bit for Change

Out of Leaden Sleep, Out of Slumber Deep. Arise!

Out of leaden sleep, Out of slumber deep. Arise! –Iqbal

Our elections are no different than our cricket matches. ‘The boys played well’ but the match was fixed. While PML-N takes the trophy home, MQM becomes the party of the series by Mr. Abdul Waseem and Mr. Nabil Gabol getting approximately 370 votes/minute and 314 votes/minute respectively, PTI was that new team which walked onto the playing arena and everyone booed because nobody ever thought PTI would last a single inning but they just did not last but emerged as the second largest party of Pakistan. Khan Sahab is no doubt our Man of the Match.

While Pakistan’s youth is demoralized and depressed over the rigged elections, they fail to realize what just happened to them. We have finally woken up from our deep slumber. We shrugged off our indifference. This is Imran Khan’s biggest achievement that he actually preached what he firmly believed in – Iqbal’s philosophy. He made us remember what Iqbal had said about us:

“Tu shaheen hai, parwaz hai kaam tera‘

You are a shaheen, your work is to fly.

Also,

‘Naheen tera nashayman Qasr-e-Sultani ke gumbad par

Tu shaheen hai, basayra kar paharon ki chattanoon main‘

Your abode is not on the dome of the palace of kings

You are a shaheen, live on the mountain-cliffs

Imran Khan made us realize our potential and urged us to use it to its fullest. His tsunami made this stagnant nation strive. For once, our lives completely revolved around the fate of our country and we could and would not think or talk about anything else.

Harper Lee’s character, Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mocking Bird says:

“Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand (In our case, the na-malum afraad). It’s knowing you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”

I feel this quote perfectly fits our situation. The fact that PML-N won should not be surprising. It was very much predictable. PML-N spent money like water and it seeped through many organisations and officials who scripted these elections. There was no possible way that PTI could have had clean swept the elections. Those who believed that it would were being blindly optimistic. Yes, Imran Khan claimed to sweep the elections but it was not the politician inside him talking, it was that sportsman and captain who told his team that they will take the cup home in the 1992 World cup when everyone thought that Pakistan does not stand a single chance. He did not make claims as a politician; he gave pep-talks as a sportsman. While it raised our hopes, but somewhere along the line it gave us too many hopes to handle. We actually started to visualise a ‘Naya Pakistan’, without realising that it took years and many sacrifices to build Pakistan in the first place so a ‘Naya Pakistan’ cannot be created overnight and after just one successful election campaign.

As the saying goes that every thousand mile journey begins with a single step, we should be proud and grateful that we finally took the first step and laid the first brick.

We need to understand that Pakistan is still a malnourished child because soon after its creation, it was denied the right to grow and prosper. Feudalism, corruption, nepotism, hunger for power and various other factors act as shackles to deter Pakistan from flourishing. These factors cannot be eliminated overnight.

There is a reason why the literacy rate in Pakistan is so low. The people high above do not want the average Pakistani villager to be educated. The day he gets educated, he will stop to bow down in front of ‘Baba Saien’ and vote for the candidate his village’s Wadera orders him to vote for. That day the young men belonging to various militant wings will sit down and contemplate over what they really get out of the dirty work they do for those above them, e.g., sending text messages to shopkeepers to close down their shops, assassinating people, rigging the elections, etc. The na-malum afrad will question the malum authorities that how are their lives getting any better by doing all this while their bosses lead comfortable lives in countries abroad. That day the average Pakistani will stop to fall for loans and laptops and will realise that first of all he/she deserves basic human rights and amenities.

The only way to fight them is education, awareness and constant struggle. Also, most importantly, during these elections, I feel the leaders did a lot of damage to nationalism. The election results are a proof of that. It’s about time we get out of these racial and ethnic biases. Stop blaming the Punjabis for voting for PML-N. It is not their fault. They voted for the development in their province, however I fail to grasp how they could ignore the Badami Bagh and LDA building incidents, but we cannot blame them if they failed to realise how important their vote is for Pakistan on the whole because we ourselves sowed the seeds of racial and ethnic enmities.

Tabdeeli agayi hai, but it needs time to completely manifest. I do not need to remind anyone how amazing all Pakistanis proved to be on election day when they went out to vote despite the na-malum forces making that difficult. This is change. When 60% of the population voted because for once they had a party and not a mafia or a family trust to vote for. When people who did not want to vote for anyone but at least went out and used their vote and left it blank so that it does not get used. When we had independent candidates like Mr. Jibran Nasir who educated us and gave us food for thought instead of begging for votes.

So let’s keep calm and try to renovate the purana Pakistan. And remember:

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

A Brave New Pakistan Under Construction

The election results have without doubt been the most decisive in Pakistan’s tortuous path towards political maturity. While it may be considered a setback for those seeking change, it was indeed a heavy price paid by the governing PPP ruled by the Bhutto dynasty. Their mismanagement of Pakistan ranged from the devastating floods to the rising cost of living; consequently pushing millions more into poverty. They managed to worsen Pakistan’s image, as foreign aid became the staple of corrupt officials holding onto power. Few can forget their endorsement of Drone attacks, which has claimed thousands of innocent lives thereby etched in the memories of the Pakistani electorate. The results have almost ravaged the People’s Party (PPP) which may have confirmed a permanent residence for father and son Zardari and Bilawal in the UAE and London. This outcome is major progress for Pakistan’s development when looking ahead. However, one shouldn’t disregard their historical comebacks even if their most recent success occurred on a wave of sympathy. Their political strategists will have the luxury of time to plan a return to front line politics.

The popularity of PTI in Peshawar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region has sent the most powerful message to the new government of Nawaz Sharif and any potential coalition partners concerning the terror of drone attacks. The people of this region perhaps couldn’t have been compensated with a more energised and vocal representative than Imran Khan which will ensure continued coverage of this volatile north-west region of Pakistan on a national and international level.

Another major force of continued scrutiny and exposure of the next administration is the invigorated and diverse media outputs, which largely filled the vacuum of any viable opposition over the last five years.

The remarkable achievement of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) can be better realised once we begin to appreciate the decades-old siege of two political superpowers, the Sharifs and the Bhuttos, with an estimated combined wealth of approximately $3.2 billion between them. PTI’s success in KPK provides a new front for Pakistani politics which was traditionally fought between Punjab and Sindh. They have introduced meritocracy, free from bonded loyalty, and led by their charismatic leader. We only need to compare them with the likes of UKIP here in England, who are yet to gain a parliamentary seat despite the accolades they were given by the British press as a serious threat to the Conservative Party. Even if we take the example of Liberal Democrats languishing as the third party for many years and often the butt of many jokes about their relevance, many pundits still predict their annihilation at the next general election in 2015 despite their coalition government status. PTI can therefore celebrate its position as the official opposition and fulfil the important role of providing the checks and balances needed for any civilised country claiming to uphold the basic tenets of a democratic state.

Nawaz Sharif can still turn this around if he can improve the economy and subsequently raise living standards as well as resolving the Afghan/Pakistan issue. Many will not criticise his confrontations with India during his previous premierships and many still praise him for testing the Nuclear bomb despite international pressure to hold back, which served as a counterforce to India’s nuclear threat. The Pakistani people are extremely resilient and forgiving despite having been let down in the past. If this is not the case, then Imran Khan’s PTI could make serious inroads over the next five years. In many ways this is a brave naya (new) Pakistan.

Peace March, Political Stunt and Killer Drones

You don’t have to be a PTI worker to see what Imran Khan’s peace march to Waziristan has achieved. Nor can you be so blind, unable to read and recognise the hypocrisy written all over Fazl-ur-Rehman’s and Abdul Ghafoor Haidri’s statements calling Imran Khan an agent of the ‘Jews’ and by personally attacking his ex-wife and children. And guess what! Fazl-ur-Rehman, self-proclaimed Pakistani pseudoliberals and US were all on one side, either due to being Anti-Peace-March or pro-drone or both. Not surprising actually!

Any independent unbiased activist, anti-war and anti-drone humanist would wholeheartedly appreciate this big step that was taken by Imran Khan. I was appalled to hear and read some lame arguments from some ‘senior journalist’ who once shouted Why-Islamabad-and-Why-Not-Waziristan. Now the objection changed to Why-South-and-Why-not-North-Waziristan. Some of them asked why invite Americans to protest in Waziristan and rather not go to USA and protest in front of the White House (which CodePink activists did before coming to Pakistan). A few days before the march, the pseudo-liberal lot claimed TTP and Imran are friends and so they will provide him security which was later denied by the Taliban. Then, the march was stopped near Tank and was denied access to the area. It sounded amusing to some. The critics somehow overlooked that the mission was to highlight the issue with the help of the international activists which was symbolic as well as revealing. Do the noise makers suggest it should have been turned into a violent protest, to get to the area by hook or by crook? Hilarious indeed!

The international media covered the issue for two consecutive days. This same media is used to brainwash people about the effectiveness of War on Terror and ‘accuracy’ of American drone strikes killing ‘militants’ alone. By raising the issue in an extra ordinary way this march has shown the people of these countries, the other side of the story.

Clive Stafford Smith (who came from UK to attend this rally) writes in his article,

“During the day I shook the hand of a 16-year-old kid from Waziristan named Tariq Aziz. One of his cousins had died in a missile strike, and he wanted to know what he could do to bring the truth to the west. At the Reprieve charity, we have a transparency project: importing cameras to the region to try to export the truth back out. Tariq wanted to take part, but I thought him too young.

Then, three days later, the CIA announced that it had eliminated “four militants”. In truth there were only two victims: Tariq had been driving his 12-year-old cousin to their aunt’s house when the Hellfire missile killed them both.”

According to a major study released by Stanford University and New York University named ‘Living Under Drones’ only 2 out of every hundred killed may be militants and the fear is immeasurable.

“Drones hover twenty-four hours a day over communities in northwest Pakistan, striking homes, vehicles, and public spaces without warning. Their presence terrorizes men, women, and children, giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities. Those living under drones have to face the constant worry that a deadly strike may be fired at any moment, and the knowledge that they are powerless to protect themselves.”

Drones are a familiar phenomenon for Pakistanis, Yemenis and Afghans but not so for the rest of the world. It was effectively highlighted; no sane person can deny the fact. And how many Pakistanis know where they operate from, how illegal they are according to international law and even US constitution and how they CANNOT operate without our government’s permission. ‘We condemn; you carry on’ policy of the Pakistani civil and military authorities is utterly disgusting. And now the whole world knows our leaders have made us a US colony where they are only puppets displayed to deceive us.

Some leaders labelled the march as a ‘political stunt’ risking the lives of people and activists from the world to gain votes? Not so surprisingly, this does happen in Pakistan by the parties who have ruled us again and again so they painted their formula to label the march as a political drama. The silliest argument that really surprised me was ‘Would this march stop the drones?’ If that’s the point then beware: All marches are political stunts, all processions are pointless and all protests are useless as they don’t change anything most of the time.

Let’s leave the intentions to God and not undermine the cause by such unjustified and childish squabble. The issue is national. There is a war imposed on us without declaration and one faction of intellectuals is bent upon legalising what the world holds illegitimate i.e. drones. The biggest ally is the major sufferer with innocent women and children being killed in double tap attacks (targeting the rescuers) or left amputated with post-traumatic stress disorder; Attacks that are carried out on the basis of ‘local intelligence’ gathered by awarding a few thousand dollars and using locals to tag the target with a GPS device, make someone’s fortune and ruin someone’s home and family. The march has brought attention to the forgotten people of Waziristan living under the killer buzzes in fear, avoiding meeting with each other with confidence and trust due to suspicion and terror created by the US.

Support whatever is good and let not your personal, political and/or egoistic ‘self’ weaken the cause and make the world laugh at us. We have a problem, we raise voice, the good people from the world come out to help us but we doubt each other’s intentions. Woah! Don’t let the voice go weak. Strengthen it for the sake of the country and humanity. Play your part, positively. You’re answerable for your bit and every word that you contribute for or against the truth.