Fleeting moments
The seasons don’t change abruptly. The changes come slowly and gradually. Migratory birds are the first to smell the change in the air, as they have to travel long distances in search of suitable climes. Similarly, the ‘electables’ in our politics are the first to pick up the scent of the coming election. So it’s time for them to decide which way to tilt.
Shifty electables are homing in on new political parties where they see a chance to prosper and multiply their fortunes. Since the PPP is the party that is in complete disarray, many of its stalwarts seem to sit on the fence. The fence-sitters don’t need to offer plausible reasons for their defection from the party. They usually denounce the party leadership for being inept, leading the party astray or simply not giving them time to listen to their wise counsel. Once an electable decides to ditch his party, it’s only a matter of time before he or she takes flight to settle on a different perch.
Recently, four electables Noor Alam Khan, Firdous Ashiq Awan, Nazar Gondal and Nawabzada Ghazanfar Gul ditched their party – the PTI. The first three joined the PPP while Ghazanfar Gul gravitated towards the PML-N. A beaming PTI chief Imran Khan valiantly stood by Firdous Ashiq Awan when she announced her decision to join his party. Did Khan realise that the PTI was the third habitat of the migratory politician?
The electables who once stood behind their party bosses and nodded in subservience over the wise men’s utterances of wisdom, now blame them for failing to steer the parties in the right direction. When deserting the party, the usual refrain of the electables is that it was no longer the party they had once joined. On leaving the PPP, Nawabzada Gul regretted that “there was no space left for him in the party”. Why not, especially when so many are ditching the party? However, PM Nawaz Sharif discovered a gem in Ghazanfar Gul and appreciated his “principled decision”.
It is commonly observed that those who manipulate their way through politics usually succeed in achieving their ends. Some of the defectors are preferred over those who had remained loyal to the party throughout their political career. Such a policy definitely causes resentment among the old guards of the party. For instance, if Firdous Ashiq Awan were elected in the next election and made a minister, it could spark off much criticism among the old loyalists of the PTI.
There are some politicians who remain in one party and never change their loyalties. However, they are ignored by the party bosses. Such politicians usually lack the art of making the right moves to go up the ladder of political success.
Amjad Farooq Khosa, a PML-N MNA from Dera Ghazi Khan, has remained in one party since he joined politics a few decades ago. He never held any ministerial portfolio. If asked why he never had any such appointment, he might mutter, with much humility, that: “Maybe I wasn’t cut out for it”. A Ravian and a great bibliophile, he maintains perhaps the largest private library of books on politics and history. He would have gained much from books. But books could not provide him the necessary art of fawning, which paves the way to success in politics.
Nevertheless, the daily dosage of politics injected into TV viewers has started to get on their nerves. Not many are interested to see how Hussain Nawaz alights from a bulletproof Merc to attend the court or how he sits when quizzed by the JIT. They are not interested in knowing who leaked his photo. Alternatively, they are not interested in how Imran Khan comes up with a new set of demands for the PM to meet. A majority of the citizens – suffering from long hours of power outages and rising power bills – have little interest in how the powerful and the mighty are locked in battles to undo each other. The rulers live in a world of luxury while the ruled strive to keep the body and soul together.
The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore.
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