Daily Times

Pakistan’s political landscape has become an echo chamber of self-serving political charlatans and pseudo-visionaries who promise glorious future to the masses- when not in power. Every political party in the country has become a flag bearer of revolution- a word so ubiquitous that it seems like it has lost all meaning. But, what piques with the rationality is the call for revolution after every election; by a party which is usually defeated and concomitantly demonstrates recalcitrance to the same political process it was actively part of- before the defeat.

Meanwhile, impairing the already fragile democracy in the country, the party which ascends to form the government in Islamabad, quintessentially assumes the high moral ground to declare every dissenting voice anti-state, and deploy age old tactics of intimidation aimed at its political opponents. In the midst of this power struggle, the common man continues to be treated as a pawn-darted hither and thither without any relief to fulfill the uncontrolled ambitions of political elite.

While, the will of common man will hardly find its voice in the powerful political houses, the opposition alliance in the country has once again called for a mass movement against the government-another call for ‘revolution’ following rejection of 2018 election, which led Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) to form coalition governments in the center and three provinces. The opposition alliance led by Pakistan Muslim League -Nawaz , Pakistan People’s Party and jamiat Ulema-e Islam -F along with eight other parties under the umbrella of Pakistan Democratic movement (PDM) has threated to hold long March against the PTI government, and warned of en masse resignation from the National Assembly, in a desperate attempt to gain traction and ramp up political temperatures by promising their supporters a swift victory which is not yet in sight, and for which a coordinated and calculated political struggle is essential.

The think tanks in the opposition alliance, would have been running pillar to post to bring about adequate plans to succeed in their ‘revolution’, while in an attempt to defy the odds the government which came to the power propounding ‘Change’- would be orchestrating plans to incapacitate the revolutionaries. The big question that political scientists would’ve been wrangling about is to find the relevance of ‘Change’ or ‘revolution’ professed by the accidental ideologues of political parties, and despite their utopian objectives- any possible material success of these notions.

The peddled concepts may be unintelligibly appealing to many, yet they are flawed to the core, and both sides of the political spectrum are pandering to them. Unsurprisingly, what will lead these seasonal political slogans to a dead end, is the very reason of their propagation; ascension to power!

People find themselves fatigued by the endless and essentially meaningless exhortations of ‘revolution’ and ‘Change’ by politicians who promise a beautiful tomorrow-after ascending to power , but whose words and actions represent a regressive, personality-driven politics, rooted in precisely the power structure they decry day after day. The scenes of big public gatherings being addressed by Maryam Nawaz and Bilawal Bhutto, the former being a daughter of Nawaz Sharif -a three time elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, and the latter being the prodigy savior of the Bhutto and Zardari families in Pakistan’s politics, adds insult to the injury.

While, the PDM led by these two political icons of today has no doubt tapped into the frustration and anger of ordinary Pakistanis, particularly those directly hurt by rising inflation and joblessness-primarily triggered by Covid-19 pandemic. But, the opposition alliance is offering nothing new. The recycled clichés and bankrupt ideologies cannot substitute for the courage and vision necessary for tackling the economic and security challenges facing Pakistan.

As the political parties under the umbrella of PDM are all set to bring a revolution to topple the government, and are demanding elections in the country, what they fail to reckon; or may deliberately not acknowledge, is that the path they are following is not a revolution, but a revolt. In Pakistan, revolution is always confused with revolt. It is pertinent to mention that a revolution sweeps away the old order; a revolt just replaces the faces at the top. And, since the PDM is hell-bound to fight the ‘selectors’ and not the ‘selected’, no matter how often the system is restarted by new saviours- Maryam-Bilawal duo this time, it converges to the same outcome that is compatible with the attributes of the old order.

The order which the PDM has decried principally is based on stark social inequality, in which the majority is dependent on a tiny minority for access to services and basic rights. This kind of hierarchical order is compatible with patron-client forms of governance which is really what we have had in the guise of democracy. Everything we observe confirms that our rulers consider themselves monarchs while the ruled think of themselves as subjects. A revolution that would transform subjects into sovereign citizens, monarchs into accountable representatives; certainly not the kind PDM will settle for, as it destroys the very fabric on which it is built upon- parties led by the families ruling the country, even under military regimes.

While, the brains in the opposition parties will be offering ridiculously tried and tested ideas to dethrone the present government and its ‘selectors’- God help them-if the reference is the people who voted during 2018 elections. The irony is that the threats to ramp up the pressure on the government by offering en masse resignations, sit-ins and march towards the capital will bear no fruits. Similar methods were tried by Imran Khan during his 2014 sit-in to haunt the then Nawaz Sharif government into resigning. The attempts of marches, massive rallies and resignations not only failed to oust the government back then, and kept the government running until Panama scandal surfaced.

Any political movement which aims to oust the government by these “brainy” ideas will be a complete wastage of time and resources of the nation. Revolt or revolution, or how extremely shady this political movement be, if there is a slightest aim to salvage common people from their miseries , PDM revolutionaries must know what to offer. PDM may boast of having Aristotles and Socrates’ in its ranks, but learning some new methods to madness, from outsiders might lift its chance of correcting its course, and identify its shortcomings. While the political philosophers may offer series of new ways to go about, it is germane for PDM think tanks to stumble upon, Blueprint for revolution, a book by Srdja Popovic.

The book offers a wide array of vision to succeed in modern revolutions, which could be a great advisory for PDM. Among most important lesson from the book, what Maryam-Bilawal-Fazalur Rehman troika could relaise that the fight must be “relevant to everyone,” and “no matter how important the big issues are, it’s imperative to start with something manageable”, unlike toppling the government and declaring an open war against the Country’s establishment. And if the all mighty leaders want few cues to win this game, the very important lesson that Popovic expounds in the book, is that the revolution is an ongoing process, and is not limited to overthrowing regimes via arbitrarily pulled deadlines or short term objectives. The big lesson to be learned is that any haste will result in power vacuum in the country, and the end result will be anarchy, and even more ruthless regime-certainly not the desired objective of any PDM led Movement.