The birth of a nation

In space, stars are formed and they are also destroyed in supernova explosions all the time. The stars and the planets we came to know and love are nothing but dust from destroyed stars and other cosmic bodies that came together to form complex and solid structures. When a star is destroyed in a supernova explosion because it spends all its fuel, it brightens up the dark vacuum of space before it disappears forever. The resulting dust from it keeps circling around until it coalesces and forms other cosmic bodies. Our nearest star, the sun, was also once some other cosmic body’s ashes. And then one day, the ashes came together and became the sun. The histories of our planet earth and the other neighbours in our solar system are no different. We were born because someone else got fed up with their existence.

On February 8, Pakistan reminded me of that. The country was created in 1947, but it wouldn’t be wrong to argue that the nation was born on February 8, 2024. The people came together as a nation after they were beaten and broken into pieces that merely lived in this expanse of land as members of a crowd. That crowd also coalesced and became a nation, much like the dust coalescing to form planets and stars.

In America, citizens are being asked and reminded to vote for their preferred candidate, which is a thing of the past because now elections are all about voting against the candidate they hate, regardless of who is running against that candidate. It is called revenge voting. There is nobody they love or respect. There are all kinds of attempts to lure the youth toward voting. People vote because it is the voting season and they have to vote for someone.

In Pakistan, there was something new observed this time around. For about 2 years, the people were beaten down, their voices suppressed, their opinions weren’t halal enough to be expressed, they were told to accept a regime they absolutely despised. With life in this pressure cooker that Pakistan had become since the ouster of Imran Khan, there was only one way left for the people of Pakistan to express their frustration: voting. And they did go out to vote. It was the mother of all voting. For Americans, voting is like kids going to school. For the Pakistanis this time, it was like watching the next episode of their favourite show. They were desperately waiting for it.

In America, and I use the American example because they are the proudest democracy in the world, usually the winning candidate achieves about 51% of the majority. The country is almost divided in 2 big halves every single time over who should win. In the Pakistan of 2024, the country is almost entirely united in voting for one man. That has got to be the most organic democracy not seen or heard of anywhere in this world. No other nation is fortunate enough to have a leader that with the power of his character and charisma can unite the entire nation. However, Pakistan has never been a state that appreciated its own strengths. There is a culture of always looking up to others and replicating that at home.

Think about it for a moment. The American people briefly came together when President Bush rallied them around the flag after the 9/11 attacks. Pakistan didn’t have to beat the drums of war or be attacked by India for the nation to come together. It took only one man whose name couldn’t be uttered in the country’s media and who was happily living in a jail cell for the sake of the people of Pakistan. And no war has coalesced the nation together like Imran Khan has with nothing but charisma and the strength of character.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2024.

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