People’s election

There is just so much to celebrate at the end of the recent elections. One, these were held. We are known to have fallen back on unconstitutional ways to deny or usurp power. Could these have been held better? Without a doubt — the Election Commission cannot be proud of how it came out in collating and informing results. Widespread tales of corrupting and manipulating results on seats in Punjab and Karachi are now well established. The Election Commission is responsible for it primarily for failing to keep the transparency and fidelity in those constituencies. Two, despite the hurdles, the difficulties, the confusions and the rampant use of force and fear, the people spoke in favour of their party and its candidates. They found the symbol that supported their candidates from a plethora created to confuse the voter and stamped their authority without fear.

This defines the new politics, and we can deny it only at our peril. People and the society remain inherently democratic and prefer democratic options than agitate or resort to insurgent means. This is redeeming. For a nation as large as ours respect for law and the process must be held supreme to keep it relevant and the only way that people will express themselves. Foundational institutions like administrative machinery, law and order mechanisms, judiciary and the armed forces hold the edifice together even if they may seem compromised on the surface at times. If those are corrupted beyond redemption the edifice will crumble felling the entire state structure. Any other way can only be disastrous. We saw a glimpse on May 9^th, and it shook us to the core. The responsibility is mutual — not give a reason to people to fall back on dastardly ways and respect their voice and will. Agreed, when the going’s tough there will be compromises and those must be incorporated but in the manner of instituting hope and respect for popular will.

An attempt at forging a national consensus on some critical parameters is a good start when all parties may be invited to be a part in their respective capacity or to the extent they can. An unhindered and unobstructed government in KP with full constitutional freedom will help restore trust. As will an effort at continuous engagement with someone who feels wronged by law and authority. Legal cases where frivolous must be ceased, where those need to be processed must be expeditiously served with full chance at justice. This is the least we must do to honour the call and the voice of the people. Thereon it will be for the party in question to align itself along collective national interests and purpose. People’s voice when not in congruence with a chosen path — as is currently the case for restoration and consolidation of a way out of our politico-economic morass — will equally need to be tempered with saner mentoring, not held as a tool of blackmail for tribal or personal benefit. It obligates all sides to work in national interest.

These elections manifested the institution of a three-party system as a feature which will continue to shape national politics in the foreseeable future. PTI is here to stay and will be a redoubtable voice in current and future politics. It has its task cut out in the near-term. It must consolidate its gains around well entrenched roots and popular support. This will need deliberate and prudent organic structuring than a sentimentalist recourse. If it was an anger vote or a sympathy vote it is for the party to give it permanence as a political voice framing hopes and desires into achievable outcomes. The leadership must be nimble and suave to sew in the sentiment into discipline and mechanisms which will give the party a longevity and political purpose — anger is not political purpose.

The PPP has made the smoothest transition and ensured continuity by launching its next generation very timely. Bilawal is maturing fast and will be a force to behold by the time next elections come around — Maryam Nawaz in the PML-N must yet prove herself in governance. The PPP has held on to its bastion in Sindh even more strongly and ventured out into fruitful forays in Balochistan and Punjab. It may not have gained Karachi, as it had hoped, but lost it to transitional and temporary anomalies which cannot stand the test of time. If the MQM reverts to its old ways it shall be the quickest and most abiding loser of the new set-up. It cannot sustain as a recognisable identity falling on its old ways of fear and extraction. Or the PPP and the PTI will reemerge as the main contenders in Karachi. PPP under its young leadership will need to keep the party democratic, inclusive and participatory. It cannot be a dynastic undertaking alone.

The PML-N is the biggest loser in the election. It is jaded, listless, obsolete and fossilised. Even worse, it is devoid of ideas. Politics has changed, as have the people and the electorate. Those who criticise social media in the age of AI are already displaced in time and space. Politics is nothing but understanding the context. Those who cannot relate to the context are irrelevant. This is this party’s biggest failure. They have yet to read the room. To them defiance, rather than hope and promise, is an ideology. After being helped into power in Punjab on-demand they are a poor mimicry of days past living on hand-outs. They have been unable to bridge this divide and not let alternatives emerge from within their ranks reserving eminence only for the royalist Sharifs. Sadly, their time is out. They will need to redefine, redesign, rethink and relist in another way or the party and its past will now only belong to history. The time of ‘electables’ is long over. It shall have to be politics of real issues relevant to the common man. The King is naked.

The real winner was the common man. He spoke despite hurdles and threats and fear infused with high-handedness. He spoke voluminously making himself heard over all the noise and bluster. His voice reverberated through the fortified structures insulated from real Pakistan over the decades. He announced the end of the elites. Whatever governing arrangements may emerge each of the partners will always now be looking over their shoulder. That’s quite a caution in a country of 250 million with institutions as behemothic. Politics is about being fluid and aligning with the context, not changing it with force. It needs flexibility of options and conduct. There isn’t a more fluid battlespace than politics, if battlespace is what will guide our instincts. It is time for sanity to prevail finding pathways from the amalgam that we have become. Incremental restoration and consolidation of gains made in recent months on economic front is what is of essence at the state level. Prudence and sanity will help.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2024.

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