Opinion

Lost in translation between Naya & Purana Pakistan

We are seeing all political parties compete aggressively for votes from the electors, not the selectors

M Bilal Lakhani May 15, 2022

Naya and Purana Pakistan are acting like they’re on the brink of a divorce. Much like the Shiza and Fiza meme though, Naya and Purana Pakistan look so alike that it’s difficult to tell them apart but they’re struggling to speak to each other. Forget believing in different sets of facts, even a simple word like ‘elected’ means two different things in Naya and Purana Pakistan. And this isn’t just a generation gap. It’s an ideological gap intoxicated by two Ts — testosterone and Twitter.

Take the word elected. When this parliament elected Imran Khan in 2018, he was called ‘selected’ by Purana Pakistan and said not to enjoy the mandate of the Pakistani people. In 2022, when the same exact parliament elected Shehbaz Sharif as Prime Minister, he was viewed as genuinely enjoying the mandate of the people and perceived as elected by Purana Pakistan and rejected by Naya Pakistan. In short, both sides are projecting their hyper partisanship onto words as foundational as ‘elected’. If aliens from Mars were to land in Pindi and ask us who our leader was, the answer would depend on who they happen to ask.

This would be funny if it wasn’t such a disaster and had such real world consequences. So, where do we go from here? Perhaps one way to build a bridge between Purana and Naya Pakistan is to talk about what we can agree on, before we fight over what we disagree on. So, here are two ideas or platforms that everyone in Pakistan can agree on. First, that the boys should stay out of politics. And second, that elections should be free and fair. If those two hold true, we should let the chips fall where they do. The people of Pakistan should elect to live in Naya or Purana Pakistan. These sound like basic ideas but they illustrate that both sides have more in common than their disagreements convey.

After 70 years of flirting with the fantasy of dictatorship versus democracy debates, we now have broad-based consensus from all three major political parties that selectors are counter-productive and electors (people of Pakistan) are the ultimate guarantors of progress. And this is actually a much bigger and positive outcome than any of us could have imagined. It is the silver lining or light at the end of this dark and twisted tunnel. We have to take a moment to savour and build on it versus rush to the next partisan fight.

It’s hard to find light in the darkness these days but I’m going to keep trying in this piece. While partisanship is condemnable when it turns violent, healthy disagreements and sharp differences in policy platforms is a good thing in a democracy. And while you may love or hate one side or the other, when you add all the pieces together, Pakistan has all the ingredients to keep progressing on its democratic journey. For example, we have a mainstream political party that positions itself as competent and experienced. We have another mainstream party that positions itself as liberal. And another party that wants to topple the entire elite status quo and build a Naya Pakistan. While none of these parties can transform Pakistan on their own, when the push and pull of their politics comes together, the country makes progress, no matter how painful and slow.

What we are witnessing in Pakistani politics right now are the non-violent contractions that will deliver a new social contract, not a civil war. We are seeing all political parties compete aggressively for votes from the electors, not the selectors. This is a good thing. A small example of this is when this government was chartering a PIA plane to Saudi Arabia to take a big delegation with everyone and their mother in law. Due to public pressure, they were forced to reverse this decision. It’s a small victory but showcases that fierce competition among political parties can lead to healthy outcomes. There is no easy pathway out of the political quagmire we’re in today but a good start is to focus and build on the positives versus drowning in the negative.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2022.

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COMMENTS (4)

test1 | 2 years ago | Reply Let the people decide to whom they want to vote PTI or PMLN We need to get rid of dynastic politics we need new and talented and loyal faces whose interests solely lies in the betterment of our country. But in Pakistan we are seeing same faces again and again I know in 2018 we saw a new face and he must have outperformed the previous ones. But he committed the same mistakes by going to IMF and blah blah. He did good things but the main thing is economy and accountability. Neither he did accountability of anyone nor he managed the economy as one may have hoped. Anyway i think i will vote him again may be for the last time so that he can get the 2 3rd majority but it also depend on the people because i alone doesn t matter there will be 110 million other voters who will decide and then people will hear no excuses any more if he fails to perform again this will be his last performance. But it all depends on next elections and to whom people will vote. May be he will win in 2023 or may be in 2028. Educated people will decide that by voting. But i myself bored of seeing sharifs and zardaris again and again. Does their party has no other faces to run the country Are there no other talented people from their parties Well that is called dynastic which means my next and next and next and so on generations will rule the party as well as country even if they don t have the merit to do so except they are grand grand grand or even son of those who founded the party.

test1 | 2 years ago | Reply Let the people decide to whom they want to vote PTI or PDM We need to get rid of dynastic politics we need new and talented and loyal faces whose interests solely lies in the betterment of our country. But in Pakistan we are seeing same faces again and again I know in 2018 we saw a new face and he must have outperformed the previous ones. But he committed the same mistakes by going to IMF and blah blah. He did good things but the main thing is economy and accountability. Neither he did accountability of anyone nor he managed the economy as one may have hoped. Anyway i think i will vote him again may be for the last time so that he can get the 2 3rd majority but it also depend on the people because i alone doesn t matter there will be 11 million other voters who will decide and then people will hear no excuses any more if he fails to perform again this will be his last performance. But it all depends on next elections and to whom people will vote. May be he will win in 2023 or may be in 2028. Educated people will decide that by voting. But i myself bored of seeing sharifs and zardaris again and again. Does their party has no other faces to run the country Are there no other talented people from their parties Well that is called dynastic which means my next and next and next and so on generations will rule the party as well as country even if they don t have the merit to do so except they are grand grand grand or even son of those who founded the party.

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test | 2 years ago | Reply After night comes dawn and with dawn comes good. It would be our fault if a wrong guy gets elected. So be sure twice that you are voting the right guy before repenting on your decision. So make sure the good one wins at the end. And who is good The answer is simple ask the educated people and guide uneducated people . Bring others to light from darkness. Advise is free of cost.

Mithidada | 2 years ago | Reply All very good but you cannot function with an alternative set of facts . If the truth bows down before a personality cult where do you go from there. Downhill very rapidly is the answer.

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