Daily Times

Ayesha Gulalai, who heads the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-Gulalai (PTI-G) party, has dubbed her party workers ‘Ababeel’ to help create a Madina-style welfare state.

She was speaking to the media after submitting her nomination papers for NA-53. A video of her media talk also emerged on Twitter.

“We are not using words like jiyala or khilari for our candidates,” she said. “My people are Ababeel. They will be people of high moral character. They will not abuse anyone.”

According to her, these people will introduce the politics of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the country. “They will introduce the politics of our Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him), who created the welfare state of Madina. Insha Allah, my Ababeel will throw pebbles at these three elephants and eliminate them,” she said.

Ababeel is a reference to a pre-Islamic event during the Year of the Elephant, in which a tyrant sent an army of elephants to destroy the Kaaba. The Ababeel were a flock of birds that are believed to have appeared as divine help. They dropped pebbles on the elephants and destroyed the army.

Gulalai said her party will bring people from the middle and working classes to parliament. “Pakistanis will make my party rise by contributing Rs 10 each because I do not have capitalists and feudal lords backing me,” she said. “We will give leadership to the young people and women.”

She said her party will fix the education system of Pakistan that is based on rote-learning. “We’ll bring the modern education system to Pakistan,” she said.

Published in Daily Times, June 16^th 2018.