In the recently concluded elections two young independent representatives, Ali Wazir&MohsinDawar, have been elected from South and North Waziristan, in NA-50 & NA-48 respectively. These two representatives have run from pillar to post in order to succeed in these elections. If anyone among the elected representatives across the country can claim to have purely succeeded in acquiring support then it will be these two candidates from the tribal areas. They have truly garnered the support of people and reached the highest echelons of power.
Ali Wazir who had already contested the previous elections is an experienced player in the field of politics. In the 2013 elections he narrowly escaped victory by a margin of only 300 votes. He is a self-proclaimed Marxist, and has left leaning proclivities. Moreover his family has been at the forefront in the war against extremism. His father was the first victim of the Talibani terror throughout the tribal areas. On a whole- around a dozen of Wazir’s close relatives have died due to their opposition to radical units. Moreover Wazir’s political campaign was a large success as he gallantly led massive rallies which ensured his victory in the 2018 general elections.
Similarly, Mohsin Dawar is also a well-educated and active politician. Although this was his first time contesting elections, however the way he carried out his campaigning would make it seem as though he was a veteran politician. Although voting in tribal areas was an arduous task this year, due to polling stations being located in obscure areas, however many of his voters, including women made this effort to travel in order to vote Dawar into politics.
Holistically, these two pro-people representatives have fared quite well despite their meager resources. The main reason for their success was their effort in highlighting all the major problems the local residents of their constituencies faced. Moreover they were closely associated with the Pashtun Tahfuz Movement (PTM), which became a strong base for their rise to power. It is important to note however, that despite bringing these two to spotlight, the PTM is an apolitical social rights movement that does not associate themselves with the politics of any person or party. Rather, it is a platform to raise voices against social oppression.
Instead of vilifying the PTM, tagging them as strangers, or agents of foreign powers, we should welcome their inclusionary politics with open arms
That being said, our mainstream media has never tried to highlight Ali &Mohsin’s struggle for the rights of their people, unlike the kind of positive attention some of our most corrupt politicians garner. Instead the media portrays them negatively as some kind of a niche dissent group, or doesn’t consider them important enough to mention, altogether. When these two met the Afghan ambassador, it was painted as conspiracy, with the headlines claiming that the duo had proven their secret relations with the Afghan government. The tone of the report was conspiratorial and fell under the category of ‘yellow journalism’.
Such fact less developments did nothing more than demoralizing bright young minds such as Wazir and Dawar’s, who became part of parliamentary politics to resolve the archaic problems of their region. Furthermore these patronizing media outlets are sending these tribal youngsters a clear message; ‘that they are not welcome to parliamentary politics and if they try to assimilate, they will be painted as enemies of the state.’ This is devastating for the young and impressionable minds from the under-represented, rural districts of Waziristan.
Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar are in this sense pioneers of organic political mobilization in the obscure areas of FATA. Hence instead of vilifying them, tagging them as strangers, or agents of foreign powers, we should welcome their inclusionary politics with open arms. In doing this- not only will true democracy prevail, but will also encourage other members of the youth, to rise as responsible citizens and leaders. Thus media channels should reconsider their discriminatory stance towards these two, and apologize for wrongful coverage and dissemination of misinformation.
The writer can be contacted at [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, August 11th 2018.