We are in the midst of electing local governments both in Sindh and in Punjab. The call for elections at the grassroots level remained in limbo for 10 years before the Supreme Court (SC) intervened to interrupt the slumbering rulers. The winds of change have been blowing ever since the 2008 general elections, with an intervening period of Imran’s tabdeeli (change) shout-out, having a subtle effect on the electoral process. It will take time, a few more elections, on a regular basis, for the system to improve and become satisfactory. Democracy is a self-corrective mechanism. Reinforcements such as pressure groups, political parties, oppositions and unions keep democracy in the right direction. The other day, an NGO expert (now a television analyst) was ridiculing those who had rejoiced over the transition of power from one democratically elected government to another in the 2013 general elections. She poked at all those who saw in that transition the seeds of democracy taking their first root in the country’s otherwise military-ridden governance system. On the local bodies’ election day, another analyst, from the same channel and famous for religious leanings, otherwise a bureaucrat, sang in favour of Raheel Sharif and said that if Raheel entered the political milieu he would come not with baggage but would put Karachi back on its feet.
Boys are there, we all know. That they have influence on the media is also true but seeing the secular and the non-secular falling together into military laps left a very bad taste in the mouth. The taste turned sourer as flashbacks about the military’s interventions on three different occasions and the army’s unthinkable penchant for economic expansion played out in the mind. Pakistan’s military compounded its political interest through a carefully created nexus with the landed gentry, the indigenous bourgeoisie and the metropolitan bourgeoisie. You scratch my back and I scratch yours, weakened the country’s institutions, which eventfully became subservient to the devious and manipulative moves of the powers that be. For long, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) did not deliver or was placed at the door of the political forces whether military or political. The Islami Jamhoori Itihad saga was not about money only or the military’s strategy to keep the political system surrogated to its whims; it was also about the electoral system that had been designed to deliver the nexus described above.
The first phase of the local bodies’ elections has strengthened the status quo. The Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT) president, Ayaz Latif Palijo, said a very interesting thing on the eve of the election: “It is in fact, a test of the people of Sindh who cannot say now that they vote for the PPP because there is no alternative. There is an alternative [to the PPP] in the form of the PML-F, QAT or any other force.” From this perspective, the people of Sindh have failed. What about those in Punjab, have they failed as well? Imran’s party, the PTI, could not convince the people of its change agenda. The former speaker of the National Assembly (NA), Sardar Ayaz Sadiq’s success in NA-122 on a close margin against his PTI rival, Aleem Khan, is an eye-opener for both the PTI and PML-N. So, is there a lesson in the overwhelming success of the independent candidates in the local bodies’ elections? The first lesson is that people have become smart; all the massive construction carried out in Lahore could only win the hearts and minds of 2,000 people (the margin by which Ayaz Sadiq won against Aleem Khan). Ayaz Sadiq’s performance as a speaker of the NA had no effect on the psyche of the voters. To them, Ayaz Sadiq’s presence in his constituency was more important than the clout he had been enjoying sitting on the seat of the speaker. Imagine the result if the election on NA-122 had been left to Ayaz Sadiq. The PML-N had to put the party’s entire electioneering machinery behind him to win the seat. When the election tribunal removed Ayaz Sadiq from the NA seat, he hardly mentioned his performance in his constituency as the benchmark of his success. He justified himself as the speaker of the NA.
By all practical purposes, Lahore’s development is Chief Minister (CM) Punjab Shahbaz Sharif’s personal initiative. It could not replace or substitute the individual efforts each MNA or MPA is obligated to show towards his/her constituency. It is globalisation at work. Look at the gadgets of the globalised world: Skype, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp and so forth. Each one of them has streamlined our lives along a set of rational, efficient and impersonal principles. It does matter to be out there at the right time for the right purpose and with a candid presence. No matter how badly we hate the phenomenon of McDonaldisation, we are now part of it. Omnipresence is no more the quality of a god alone; it has become ubiquitous.
Let the PTI learn its lesson from these elections too: people will not wait for change; they will bring the change themselves if nobody else does. The PTI might no more be an alternative. The mandate given to the independent candidates reinforces that reality. For the moment, let us rejoice over the complete defeat of the religious parties. Their blasphemous agenda of self-righteousness has been rejected lock, stock and barrel.
The writer is a copywriter and freelance journalist with an academic background in public policy and governance. She can be reached at [email protected]