Moeed Pirzada | FB Blogs |
Yes! I was only cautious when I wrote my last one liner…people were still gathering at Minar-e-Pakistan; but then they came from all directions, and they came with their wives, and wives with their husbands, they came with their children and their friends, they came on their motorbikes, on cycles, on their cars and they walked, and so we know for sure that they were not in the usual government controlled buses, and they were not brought by police and patwaris and by the petty bureaucrats…they were free men and women who walked to the sprawling lawns of Minar-e-Paksitan on their free will for they believed in something…something bigger than their own lives; they wore all colors of Pakistan, they were Punjabis and Pakhtoons and Sindhis and Baluch and Kashmiris..and they showed a remarkable discipline and respect for each other…and what else was different? …they were young and they were full of excitement and belief..unlike the rent-a crowds of usual Pakistani politicians who sullenly and listlessly listen to the demagoguery of politicians these men and women were full of enthusiasm and self-belief…the presence of large number of Pakistani women, of music, of Shahzad Roy and Strings added a dimension to this political rally that had never been seen in this country before…that was like the Latin American political scene…alive and full of belief..
What Imran said? he may not be as charismatic as Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto or as trained a speaker as Benazir Bhutto but the message he delivered, and delivered with all sincerity was more original and powerful ever heard from a politician in Pakistan since the Bhutto speeches of 1960’s and 1970’s….perhaps for the first time in the last 40 years a politician has emerged on the scenes of Pakistan who actually put forward a political agenda, an agenda that could be defined, understood and implemented; when he says we will get rid of the usual Patwari and thana he is laying down the vision for a progressive Pakistan…a Pakistan in which land assets could be traded without the fear of fraud…if we achieve this, or at least move in this direction, we will enter a new era of commerce….and what was refreshing was the total absence of “demagoguery”, Imran did not talk of the liberation of Kashmir, usual rhetoric against India or ultimatums to America, kind of things which cannot be implemented, he talked of things that are possible…it was so fun to listen to him…it was this balanced, sophisticated political message we so wanted to hear but could never hear from these buffoons who have ruled our lives in the last 20 -30 years…
What has changed? Elections are far off, and there is many a slip twixt the cup and the lip but today a new Pakistan was born or perhaps the Pakistan of 1960’s and 1970’s was revisited; a Pakistan that existed before Ronald Reagon the and Gen. Zia ul Haq struck the faustian bargain against Soviet Union, the faustian bargain that lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union but left Pakistan in a perpetual crisis of the politics of personality cult, of feudals and Pirs and Sajada Nasheens..today PTI has brought forward the politics of ideas and issues and this will not only effect us but will effect the structures and power politics inside the other parties…to fight PTI they will have to change…
Lets watch it as it evolves, lets make a pledge that we will all vote in the next elections and we will demand a free fair transparent election process..we will ensure a transition of power in this country..from feudals and criminals and thugs into the hands of decent human beings, first step has been taken….