The five-year-long bumpy road for the PML-N ended finally on May 31. Many chaotic questions about the democratic future of Pakistan are still in the air though apparently the country has successfully completed a decade of continuous flow of democracy. Presumably, the people of Pakistan shall be very happy about it but unfortunately they are not. They are continuously seeing the increasing undue fiddling of the ‘hidden-hands’ in the politics quite intensively. The decisions taken and withdrawn by the desperate power-monger U-turn Khan, the PTI chief, on the formation of interim-governments, especially in Punjab has intensified and deepened the chaotic situation. Quite open and blunt political engineering has increased the socio-political illusions for the immediate future. The desperation for a complete change by the very much known unknown stakeholders in the political future of the country has charged the environment with extreme behaviours in the general public even much before the actual intensified election campaigns by the political parties. Don’t ask about the frustration of the young about seeing the favourite leadership in the ‘hot-seat’ of prime minister. Desperation turns into a complete disappointment and extreme psycho-emotional crisis. The PTI leadership, supporters and youth have already experienced a moderate version of this emotional chaos five years back when they were expecting a huge majority countrywide to form the federal government and at least in two provinces too. The election results led the PTI folds to an extreme illusionary aspirations and hope to a devastating disappointment that caused a bumpy road for PML-N in the last five years. In a way it was good to limit the ferocious political manoeuvring by the ruling party, but the engineered part of it has led to emergence and prevalence of many undemocratic values for the democracy in its infancy. Despite all counter-productive political decisions and U-turns which cannot be agreed upon by any person of political maturity, the PTI has established for itself a niche as a party voicing against the corruption but only for the opponent leadership. There is no mention or action taken against the dust under its own carpet, or any voice against the corruption and malpractices in other state institutions. The KP government’s funding to controversial Maradir reflected the dimension of its politics. So, all the PTI shout out remained frenzy while the PTI chief has been all out to defend his ATMs — the money dispensing machines for him and his party. Quite unfortunately, another PTI U-turn has been deviating from their own vision which was no less than bringing a visible change in the socio-political environment. A transition from the actual vision and mission of the PTI to the present state of affairs has left genuine followers of the party, including a reasonably educated class promoting and supporting rationalism, in deep frustration What the PTI chief would say about his slogan of independent, impartial, and people-centric politics than to practicing the infatuated ideas and philosophies. A clear devoid from the actual vision and mission of the PTI to present state of affairs, the genuine PTI followers including a reasonably educated class promoting and supporting rationalism is in deep frustration. Their last hope for a socio-political change has again been muffled by the clouds of disappointment. Former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the foremost hope, and then his daughter Benazir Bhutto — the two-time prime minister of Pakistan. The people of Pakistan unluckily never expected socio-political change from the three-time premier Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, except some economic growth that could have its own complications and consequences. Strangely, Imran Khan started behaving like a party chief going to win, by hook or by crook. It won’t be wrong if I say that he is pretending and playacting like the future prime minister. What could be the level of frustration and agony for Imran Khan if the game changes in the coming days? That is very likely because of the obvious political immaturity that he has shown over the time. Every strategic stakeholder is well-aware of the state of mind and the incapacity of the PTI chief to stay by his own decisions for long. His U-turn policy and impatience would be severely affecting his future political positioning. The other extremely devastating factor would the political ‘migratory birds’ who shall preferred to be termed as the ‘lotas’. A good sign is the general public has started hating the ‘lotas’ for backstabbing their parties for the lust of their own vested interests, and playing in the hands of the ‘puppeteers’. The consciousness of common but silent voters would play a distinctive role as usual in the days to come to give a final decision about the U-turn practices in the slowly strengthening democracy in Pakistan. It is quite understandable and desired too that the citizens of Pakistan should take notice of u-turns in the best interest of the country rather for infatuated aspirations of a person or a political party. Sensibility and stability of approach towards addressing the real national challenges shall be the foremost elements of priority for the decision-making by the common citizens. The media, intelligentsia, opinion-makers, individuals and the civil society in totality shall play their role in educating the common citizens about the importance of their vote that shall casted for the change at the grassroots. It shall not be wasted for wishful thinking and aspirations of anyone. Discard the old and corrupt politicians, whatever party they belong to. Discourage the lotas even if they are the ‘pious’ as you perceive them. Don’t forget to remember that the political thieves remain as bad as they are in one political party. The writer is Islamabad-based policy advocacy, strategic communication and outreach expert. He can be reached at devcom.pakistan@gmail.com. He tweets @EmmayeSyed Published in Daily Times, June 3rd 2018.