CHITRAL: Rigging whenever and wherever there are elections, manipulating politicians and the pollical process, creating wedges and crevices among people in the name of elections is a norm in Pakistan going on since its inception. Elections are contested not on the basis of any manifesto or ideology but on consideration of personalities, tribal, territorial and individual affiliations, thus churning out elected representatives on the above basis without any consideration for merit or suitability for the job.
The result is that Pakistan, despite being a country with enviable natural resources and potent youth power is always limping with a begging bowl in hand. The ever-disgruntled youth who can manage, try to flee the country to wherever they can outside it’s boundaries. This is not what a country is supposed to be. It is not the will of God that Pakistan should forever remain sick and on crutches.
A neo political movement by the name of PTI led by a glamorous personality in the person of Imran Khan, came to the fore and clinched the government through voting some three elections ago. Much was expected of him but unfortunately could not deliver (for whatever reasons/excuses that may be). The party under Imran Khan has been in power with 2/3 majority in the KPK province since the last twelve years and even there too, things are going on in the same merry go round of no joy.
The current upheaval in Islamabad in which the PTI was protesting to reclaim it’s usurped mandate in a peaceful manner ended in a blood bath without achieving it’s goal prima facie. This is how Pakistan has become. No political endeavor or peaceful protest bears any result without the backing of the establishment. The culprit to this is not any person or persons but the culprit is the system. No matter how many faces change, condition will remain same until the system undergoes a radical transformation.
The establishment which is the biggest player in Pakistan today does not want to let go off it’s grip on the affairs of the country, just like Imran Khan did not hand over the local bodies system to elected representatives as promised in his manifesto and instead chose his DCs and ACs to run it for him in KP, similarly the establishment is unwilling to hand over authority to elected representatives whom in any case it considers incompetent.
There are some problems that we inherit by default and there is apparently no solution to them, like the Shia Sunni conflict in Islam; but the failure of governance in Pakistan does have a solution and a very viable solution at that.
Imran Khan with his overwhelming public acceptability should now make a paradigm shift in his struggle and stand up for MERITOCRACY. By doing so he may loose his political party but will gain Pakistan in the bargain. .. CN report, 27 Nov 2024
3 thoughts on “An Advice to Imran Khan”
Asking for Meritocracy of our present crop of leaders is asking for the moon. Personally I am hoping that IK has had time to reflect on his mistakes and resolve not to repeat them. My suggestion is to do what is possible which is politics, he should swallow his ego, offer to forget and forgive, allow the present government to finish their term on the condition that he is allowed to return to parliament as an opposition leader and then bargain for an independent election commission as well an independent judiciary and freedom of the press.
Bitter fact sir
Our system of governance is like the corpse of a dog at the bottom of a well of drinking water. Unless this corpse is removed no amount of replacing the water and filling it with fresh buckets (aka change of faces) will clean the well. Focussing on personalities and terming them as villains and heroes may be emotion gratifying, but is a very myopic view of our overall situation, per se. High time we should focus on and discuss the wretched system we are condemned to bear.