On May 7, late in the evening, as I opened my facebook account, I was surprised to see my newsfeed filled with ‘Get Well Soon’ messages for Imran Khan, chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). Whatsoever might be our political affiliation, we must ungrudgingly accept that the former cricket captain has touched a raw nerve amongst Pakistani masses. The groundswell of support for Imran Khan has become palpably visible, even to his detractors, during the 2013 election campaign.
How did Kaptaan, as he is lovingly called by his supporters, managed to energise masses in the electoral heartland of Pakistan? After glancing through official facebook page of Khan, reading blogs and commentaries of his supporters, and talking to ordinary people, it is possible to understand how Kaptaan’s Naya Pakistan becoame an election bestseller.
What is Naya Pakistan? It is an idea, not a tested idea, but a dream, of a corruption-free Pakistan, a country, where free, quality education will be provided to ordinary, poor masses, ,and where pursuit of justice will not be a mirage, but a vivid, tangible reality. To comprehend the reason behind feverish popularity of this idea, we must look at the demographics of Pakistan. According to United Nations’ report “World Population Prospects, the 2010 Revision” more than 60 percent of population is between the age group of 15-64, a working age group. A high percentage of population falling in the working age group means that the state has to create millions of jobs, build infrastructure to support economic activity, provide quality education and establish pre-job training programmes for young people to eliminate mismatch between skills and jobs.
However, this is not happening in Pakistan. We have one of the worst public educational systems in South Asia, in terms of school enrollment, quality of teachers, and substantive education, where students are educated to think critically and imparted with solid life and technical skills.
So, what is the effect of the abysmal education system? It deprives majority of the school going children to attain free education, at least, till secondary level. So, people with certain means, I am not alluding to upper middle-classes, but lower middle classes and, even poor people, with average monthly earnings between Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000, send their better performing children to private schools, schools that charge monthly fees from Rs 300 to Rs1,200. This investment is meant to secure better economic prospects for their sons and daughters.
But as their children graduate from schools, a rough reality hits them: entry to public sector jobs is dependent upon factors such as a recommendation letter or telephone call of a minister, bureaucrat or any other well-connected person. Therefore, the dream of seeing their son or daughter, with a secure government job, goes sour. Here enters the dream of free education and meritocracy, as embedded in Naya Pakistan.
It leads to a question: how do relatively prosperous middle classes, whose kids go to City School and Beaconhouse School, fit in this picture? Over the decades, the state’s inability to control galloping population growth and carry out meaningful public sector reforms to produce energy, check drug scams and build road and transport infrastructure, other than vote-bank driven projects in Lahore and Multan, has generated seething discontent amongst the comfortable middle classes. Thus, on the one hand, they hanker for 24-hour electricity and absence of queues to fill their car tanks; and, on the other hand, they have come to the realisation that politicians from the two mainstream political parties, has marred their future prospects by blatant misuse and plunder of state resources. So, the generous embrace of the Naya Pakistan by educated, well-off youth of Pakistan is understandable.
Deeply intertwined with these realities is charismatic persona of Kaptaan, untainted with corruption, firm, committed, and proudly nationalistic. He does not appear self-serving as he never got cosy with military dictators to gain pubic office, and also built not-for-profit institutions in Pakistan before he made his entry into politics. His charisma is an asset as it reduces the distance between the leader and the adoring masses. So, when he talks about a better education system, jobs for youth and justice for an ordinary man, many people take him seriously and believe that Naya Pakistan can establish a new, vibrant social contract between the state and the masses.
If Kaptaan had won a majority on May 11 , the victory could have been taken as the first sixer of the match, for the real test of the idea would have come when people supporting him wholeheartedly, uncomplainingly pay their taxes, with the hope that state would provide them basic services. And as Kaptaan has failed to win sufficient numbers, it will not be the defeat of Naya Pakistan. Personalities are defeated but ideas permeate deeper into the consciousness of masses; the idea of Naya Pakistan, where poor, struggling, and well-to-do people, want a stake in the governance of this country, will survive.
The writer is a public policy practitioner and holds an MSc degree in Public Policy & Management from King’s College, London