Music celebrity Jawad plunges into politics

ISLAMABAD: Following in the footsteps of former cricketing hero Imran Khan, an amiable celebrity in the music world, Jawad Ahmad, has taken the plunge in the challenging field of politics, which is being already dominated by established political parties.

He has approached the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for registration of his party to qualify itself as a legal entity and to be eligible to contest any election. His initial slogan is: Long live the struggle for quality. It may undergo changes with the passage of time.

Jawad Ahmad, who has done mechanical engineering, has received encouraging response from the social media. “Great to see you taking the initiative; welcome to politics, hope you will do your best for the betterment of Pakistan; stay blessed. Wishing you all the best! You will definitely be a promising future of Pakistan. Man of ideas; moral support with u always; congratulations on the launching of political party, wish to work with you,” were some of the Twitter posts, eulogizing his political project.

Whatever opportunities he has got to speak his mind to the general public, he has projected his concerns for the haves-not, the downtrodden, the oppressed and the labour, over capitalism and for education.

It is premature to hazard a guess as to what place Jawad Ahmed would be able to carve out for himself in the political arena. He has just taken the first step.  Already popular singers – Abrarul Haq and Ataullah Esakhelvi – are in politics, but they preferred to be associated with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of Imran Khan.

Some two years back, as central committee member of the International Youth and Workers Movement the vocalist said the labour community in Pakistan needs to start a political movement against the injustices meted out by industrialists since no political party is ready to speak up for them.

In his first fifteen years of the launch of his party, Imran Khan remained a big political nobody. It was only in 2011 that his party occupied a large space on the political horizon with a bang.

Jawad Ahmad is apparently no fan of the PTI chairman. Referring to Imran Khan’s statement that education is his priority and his speaking for 20 hours after the lynching of a student by an angry mob in the Mardan university, he wrote in a note posted on Twitter that it is not about education but the kind of education which is the question here as well as the environment of free thinking and tolerance that has to be provided to the children and youth in the institutions that you and other leaders have to be accountable for.

“You people are radicalizing youth on matters of faith by making religion the hallmark of your politics instead of the basic issues of people. . . Religion is a beautiful thing on a personal level but you are using it to your advantage, to gain power and personal aggrandizement. This is the fruit that we are all going to reap in future too if you continue exploiting religion in politics. Your bourgeois leaders are all the same, the affluent, well positioned and connected and powerful members of the ruling class. I hope people of Pakistan especially the youth will soon realize this.”

In another note on April 20, he wrote that Imran Khan and his colleagues, aspiring to become more rich and powerful in future, are too immature to understand the real nature of politics in Pakistan and will keep on venturing into such adventurism until the international and national 'real' powers come to their help, support and even rescue when required. “For that they will have to improve their political maneuvering to create new lobbies or to impress and influence the old ones with their bargaining potential and capacity and I see no reason for their not starting to do it more rationally and pragmatically now because after all they are as much of stakeholders and supporters of Pakistani third world capitalism as the others are and to grow bigger they will have to play the game according to its rules.”

He further wrote that the working class is ignorant of the fact that they are being played by all the existing elitist political parties and unless they realize that the only thing which can take them out of their miserable living conditions is organizing themselves under a working class party and struggle for their rights to equal opportunities and equitable benefits in their country, nothing is going to change for them. For that to happen, intellectuals, political activists and community leaders, especially from the otherwise reactionary (in the classical sense) middle class, will have to play their part and work with (and not only for) them with utmost dedication, commitment and with a passion to struggle for the oppressed and a strong will to sacrifice their comfort for the great cause of humanity.

Jawad Ahmad further wrote that everyone knows that behind every big fortune there is great crime. This applies to all the superrich and influential people from all the three parties –PML-N, PTI, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and others.