The man behind the red and green

Ahmad Niazi, a 19-year-old high school student from London, claimed to have come to Pakistan especially for the sit-in

KARACHI:

Zeeshan can be spotted at nearly all the political gatherings in the city. Holding his paintbrush, the Orangi Town resident makes money by marking the faces of party supporters. Zeeshan charges Rs20 to paint with his red and green poster colours.

For someone who earns a little money from politics, Zeeshan claims he is apolitical. “I support the one who’s up there,” he said, pointing towards the sky.

The rest of the crowd at Numaish had gathered early in the morning and was apparently getting hungry, as they chewed sugarcane and mercilessly threw the remains on the main road. An old man sat on a motorcycle with his wife and talked about politics with another man standing nearby. “Yeh wazir-e-azam wazir-e-azam thori hay, yeh tou Mughal-e-Azam hay [This prime minister is not a prime minister, he is like a Mughal king],” he said.

The green ‘Go Nawaz Go’ sticker on his chest glistened in the scorching sunlight.

A short distance away stood a teenager, looking slightly out of place in his t-shirt printed with the UK flag. Ahmad Niazi, a 19-year-old high school student from London, claimed to have come to Pakistan especially to attend the PTI sit-in. He said that he went to the Islamabad march and then came to Karachi.  “Imran Khan always speaks the truth,” he said, his accent thickly British. “He [Khan] is doing this because he wants to make Pakistan a better place. All my white friends also like Imran Khan.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2014.