Daily Times

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI)’s leader, Imran Khan, may be revered as the most successful captain of the Pakistani cricket team but he has tried vile tricks and has taken many unusual steps to prove himself to be a frustrated and power hungry politician. His current political theatrics, in the name of revolution, are part of the procedural steps taken in that direction. In the past, he has tried getting adopted as the blue eyed boy of the Pakistan army but when that did not turn out well, he became sympathetic to the army’s present bête noire: the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He opposed the US-led drone attacks in the Af-Pak region, not because he is ethically against such attacks but to placate the militant group active in the region.

His closeness to the militants became public when he was named by the TTP leadership as a part of the team that had to engage in dialogue with the representatives of the Pakistan government, although soon after he denied his closeness with the TTP and pulled his name from the team. Also, his closeness to the TTP can be discerned because of the fact that his party has won the provincial elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, impossible without support from the militant group. Following Imran Khan’s footsteps is the Pakistan-born Canadian citizen, Tahirul Qadri. He, suddenly, politically emerged from nowhere before the 2013 general elections. Like Imran Khan, he too wanted to attain success in the murky political environment of Pakistan. After the general elections, he disappeared to appear again to play second fiddle to Imran Khan.

Their main contention is that the Nawaz Sharif-led government came into power through electoral malpractices. Their allegations may be correct yet their method cannot be entirely justified. About their allegation on electoral malpractices, they have to remember that, before 2013, the PPP was in power. All governmental machinery was under its control. In case there was massive and widespread poll rigging then it would have benefited the PPP and not Nawaz Sharif’s party, the PML-N. Yes, the allegation of rigging by individuals or groups cannot be entirely ruled out but these sorts of malpractices affect the outcome on a limited number of seats. It cannot lead a party to win an absolute majority to form the government. If the two demagogues are raising voices against limited electoral malpractice, they are creating unsound political hysteria and inflicting unnecessary troubles on the common citizens of Pakistan. Instead, they should go through an electoral history of nascent democracies.

Unfortunately, such electoral malpractices have been practiced in almost all developing countries when they tried to adopt the democratic system after the end of colonial rule. Many of them faltered because the army or a demagogue used it as an excuse to gain power. A few, like India, survived because of a strong democratic culture and trained political leadership during the politically volatile decades after its independence in 1947. Yet the entire electoral process was not foolproof. In the past, the election process was rife with news of poll rigging and booth capturing, and government machineries were used to manage the election verdicts. Things began to improve in the 1990s after the Election Commission of India started using its constitutional power. Once the process was started, civil society organisations, through petitions and mass awareness programmes, strengthened the commission to carry out many more reforms. As a result, at present, the electoral system in India is almost free from many of the malpractices of the past.

Accusing the two demagogues does not mean that one supports the Sharif brothers. No, it does not. It is a well known fact that Nawaz Sharif started his career as a political protégé of the army but, after he experienced a coup followed by an exile in 1999, he has become slightly politically mature. His steps during the crisis when the last government under the PPP was engaged in a power tussle with the army, was a sign of that maturity and so was applauded by many. After he has taken over as the Prime Minister (PM) of Pakistan, things have far from improved; though incremental steps have been taken towards some segments, many remain in a state of negligence. Under his rule, minorities have been persecuted and killed, drone strikes killing many innocents in the Af-Pak region are still going on and the human rights-related issues of the Baloch remain unheard and unaddressed. Besides these genuine issues, in the recent past supporters of the PAT were brutally beaten and killed by the police in Lahore.

Certainly, Tahirul Qadri does not have any political future. It is Imran Khan who has to decide whether he would like to play a constructive role in strengthening the political system in Pakistan or end his political career with the tag of a nuisance demagogue. The choice lies with the captain.

The writer is a PhD student in South Asian Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. He specialises in Indian internal security and foreign policy as well as regional water conflicts