close
Thursday March 28, 2024

Can Imran become Kejriwal of Pakistan?

ISLAMABAD: Is there anything common between Aam Aadmi Party (APP) leader Arvin Kejriwal and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan? There are some similarities in their politics as both have challenged the traditional politics, both are popular figure and above all, both become icon in anti-corruption campaign against traditional parties

By Mazhar Abbas
February 19, 2015
ISLAMABAD: Is there anything common between Aam Aadmi Party (APP) leader Arvin Kejriwal and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan? There are some similarities in their politics as both have challenged the traditional politics, both are popular figure and above all, both become icon in anti-corruption campaign against traditional parties such as BJP, Congress in India and PPP, PML-N In Pakistan.
However, both have yet to be tested. Kejriwal, who won the election some two years back, but resigned under protest as chief minister, retained his position this time with landslide victory as AAP bagged a record number of 67 seats out of 70.
He will now have no excuse to deliver. He has himself admitted that the result is scary for him.Imran Khan is not a new entity in politics. It’s almost 20 years since he entered politics after remaining a cricketing hero for 24 years.
Leading Pakistan to 1992 World Cup and proving his worth as an honest social worker provide him the ideal start in politics where PPP and PML-N have been accused of corruption and bad governance.
Today his political career has entered the most crucial phase and his political standing gets bigger than Kejriwal whose party did not do well in general elections but swept Delhi. Imran is eying on Islamabad in the next elections as against Kejriwal who proved his worth in Delhi.
In front of the towering political figures like late Benazir Bhutto and strong Sharif family, Imran found himself in a difficult position and due to political immaturity he sided with a military ruler in the past something which he later regretted.
Imran’s lifestyle may not reflect Kejriwal’s and not even Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s who despite being a feudal lord attracted “Aam Aadmi,” with a slogan of ‘Roti, Kapra aur Makan’. His style of politics attracted common men who still remembered him as someone who gave them voice to speak against injustice.
How can one define this term ‘Aam Aadmi’? Is it a political term or reflection of a class society like the one which exists in India and Pakistan? In politics, this term has often been used by politicians and parties particularly in the general elections but the dream of ‘Aam Aadmi’ has often been shattered after elections.
In India, sitting Prime Minister Narindra Modi was ‘Aam Aadmi,’ in his early days in politics but, it is Kejriwal, who today, represents Aam Aadmi.
Imran, despite some of his drawbacks, emerged as a leader, who is equally popular among the burger class and in the lower income class for different reasons. His popularity is more due to the successive failures of his political rivals for providing good governance. Imran is yet to be tested. He has to prove this in Khyber Pakhtukhwa (KP), where his party has been in power for the last two years. He has three more years to make KP a model province.
Like Kejriwal, Imran too is regarded as Pakistan’s anti-corruption icon. He has far bigger challenge than Kejriwal, as Pakistani democracy is not as stable as in India.
Imran’s consistency in his campaign against corruption made him a popular leader. Secondly, after 2013 elections, his campaign for electoral reforms also raised serious questions about the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
However, he somewhat lost the direction when he decided to quit from the National Assembly and from Punjab and Sindh assemblies but retained his party in KP Assembly. Now, his party is also contesting the Senate elections. Yet, during his four-month dharna, he drew maximum media attention which made him the central figure in politics.
In the last a few months he disappointed some of his supporters as well as leaders, when he accepted some turncoats in the party with the dubious background. This can make Imran a traditional politician and it could harm his politics as well.
As an icon against corruption, his party is facing crisis in KP in the Senate elections as he feared that some of his MPAs could vote against party candidates. What action will he take against those MPAs if found involved in corruption. Earlier, in the party elections also there were serious allegations that some leaders spent money and used wrong means to get them elected.
On the other hand, the AAP agenda for Delhi is limited. Kejriwal wants to make it a clean city, corruption free and intends to make the city secured by installing 15 lack CCTV cameras in five years, bringing power tariff down, giving better and cheap transport and bringing prices of essential items down.
Imran is about to announce a similar kind of plan for Peshawar. Can he make Peshawar and KP a model province clean from corruption, clean roads and offices?
All this will not be easy either for Kejriwal or Imran. If BJP and Congress provide stiff opposition to AAP, Imran will not only have to counter PML-N and PPP but also JUI-F. For him, Senate elections can be the bench mark. What if some of his MPAs would ditch him? What action will he take? He has yet to take action against those who used money in the last PTI elections.
With the passage of time, the ideological politics also die down. Liberal and secular faces of parties like PPP and ANP disappointed their voters and same could be said for the right wing parties whose political more or less revolved around hypocrisy.
Imran started his politics in the early 90s when both PPP and PML-N were on the war path against each other. Both were removed from the government on charges of corruption though they blamed the establishment which was also not very untrue.
Imran’s popularity increased because of five years of “misrule of PPP.” True or false, former president Asif Ali Zardari and PPP could not counter the campaign. They have a point when they say that judiciary, establishment and media go against them. But, at the same time some of their leaders also admitted that all those stories were also not untrue. Sindh today is the best example of leading in corruption.
“Corruption” is like a cancer, both in India and Pakistan. It needs surgery not medicine. It can inject in you if you don’t remove it. Choice is before Imran and Kejriwal because people have left with no other choice. But, it can also be a wake-up call for BJP and Congress in India and PPP and PML-N in Pakistan.
You don’t have to be “Aam Aadmi” to do politics for Aam Aadmi. Whoever provides better life, clean water, education and health and above all respect, can become the leader of “Aam Aadmi,” whether it is Kejriwal in India or Imran Khan in Pakistan. Ground is also not lost for traditional parties as well. They still have time to learn from their mistakes.