Daily Times

After reaching dangerous highs of brutal violence, the capital’s crisis has tapered off to simmering, face-saving lows. At a loss for anything meaningful to say, the ill-fated gang of two has resorted to crass vulgarisms and clichéd gimmicks; they can now be seen desperately scanning the horizon, as if searching for forlorn love, calling out those who might never come. But whereas it might be getting a bit too painful to hear the same speech every night, the protestors find some solace in the fact that the crisis has mutated into a full-blown malaise for the ruling regime.

Parliament’s joint session has failed to give off the aura of calm that it was supposed to, and even with the fanatical duo unable to finish off their job, the elder Sharif is destined to be overshadowed for the rest of his remaining term in office. The phrase “out of depth” has been used far too often in the past few days but even that does not do justice to the extent of ineptitude the third-time prime minister has shown in contemporary times. At this point, one can be forgiven for assuming that, when it comes to the head of the ruling party, what you see is, sadly, what you get. Politics is not just the art of the possible; it is also the art of the now. If you cannot hold the attention of the masses after winning a majority mandate, somebody else promptly will. If you cannot divert the spotlight back onto yourself soon enough, you are in for some real trouble.

For their part, the protestors never were in the mood to negotiate from the very beginning. Even with varying demands from both the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), the protest was but a ruse to hide more nefarious designs. At one point during the crisis, the PAT could have seen their only meaningful demand of accountability for the Model Town brutality come to fruition in the form of Shahbaz Sharif’s ouster. The same was true of the PTI when five out of their six demands were agreed upon, with promises of a rigging probe and accountability for those involved. But it was not to be. Impatience may be the fuel that drives the ambitious but it also turns wise men into foolhardy knuckleheads.

At its core, the crisis has some unsettled issues, a major one of which is the available political space for the middle to upper-middle class, the segment of society that has shown the most solidarity with the PTI. The Pakistani middle class, which ranges from everyone who owns a motorbike to a family sedan, has been continuously expanding since the 1970s. But even with opportunities for better living standards opening up both here and abroad, traditional patronage-based politics was still keeping folks from queuing up at the polling booths. In such a context, an emergent middle class needed political representation, and they found it in Khan’s PTI.

One of the biggest gripes people had previously was that there was no party they thought could represent them. Ethnic parties were deemed too niche and religious parties too radicalised. Besides, all of the mainstream political parties had chequered pasts and perceptions of them being authoritative, corrupt, nepotistic and violent were commonplace, thus bolstering the notion that Pakistanis would always have to choose among the politicians they have, not the ones they deserve. In such a bleak scenario, Khan rose as the alternative, and a very deserving one at that. Radiating his signature charisma, he mesmerised his audiences through personal devotion and promised change and reform. Such was the loyalty towards him that even when the party started to take liberties before the election by cherry picking shady characters for party tickets, supporters averted their gaze, mumbling something along the lines of “the greater good”.

The PTI’s journey from winning a single seat in 2002 to becoming the third largest political force in the country in just over a decade is the story of perseverance and of a new generation coming of political age. However, ever since the election last year, the PTI cannot get its head around the fact that even if rigging took place in a handful of constituencies, the final results were consistent with pre-election polls. The former cricketer seems to have forgotten that, no matter how much the conditions may seem suitable towards your side, some contests can only end in draws or worse. The only lesson he does recall though is that when victory is all you crave, perhaps keeping a clean sheet is a technicality that can be done away with. As a result, the man who spoke of democratic, long-term reform, has now, in his selfish hunger for power, robbed the people of Pakistan of the one good chance they had of changing the system from within. Now, every time someone whispers about the PML-N’s antics circa 1997, critics will bring up 2014. Tainted alliances, you mentioned? Allow me to elaborate on the virtues of the Pindi Sheikh. What do you have? Memogate? I call, and raise you a London plot! But of course, in Pakistan both old and ‘new’, truth itself remains a political commodity. For the refined elite whose political reading started and ended with Hamlet, and which is more interested in game theoretic equilibriums rather than ponder over corollaries to dangerous precedents, these are merely the cavils of an archaic rustic.

As to how the crisis will end, your guess is as good as mine at this stage. Khan has always had huge support in major cities, so do not be fooled by the throngs, especially since the magnitude of support Khan enjoys in the poorer sectors of Pakistani society remains to be seen. Additionally, the Scottish referendum, much like the 2013 elections in Pakistan, has again proved that social media is not an accurate predictor of the final outcome. Move away from the urban centres — or just switch off your television for a while — and the fervour evaporates. By taking the protest to other cities, Khan has realised that his charm comes with an expiry date and the only real chance he has now is to constantly jab the government until midterm elections are held. Only then can anyone deduce if this change-from-outside debacle was worth it or not. Meanwhile, here is some food for thought: do you know which political party remains the only one in Pakistan to have moved on from personality cults, makes decisions after participatory deliberation and regularly holds internal elections? It is the Jamaat-e-Islami. Go figure.

The author is a freelance columnist with degrees in political science and international relations