Tale of hubris visited Lodhran

The stunning defeat of PTI candidate — with embarrassing big margin— by rival candidate in NA-154 by-election, Lodhran, must have sent shock wave in the rank and file of the Party, and among the top leadership in particular. It may be remembered that the PTI was defending the seat, NA-154, that fell vacant after the disqualification of Jehangir Tareen, Secretary General of the Party, by the Supreme Court in December last year. Jehangir Tareen earlier won this seat in by-election by defeating the PML-N candidate with the staggering lead of 45000 votes. Now, the defeat of PTI candidate, Ali Tareen son of Jahangir Tareen, by the opponent with the lead of 25000 votes must have taken the breath away of the PTI leadership. Meanwhile, PML-N leadership must be in state of exaltation over the unexpected heart-warming victory and defeat of the arch political rival. But, this may disturb their sense of balance only to invite the wrath of fate that generally looms nearby in country’s politics to strike unexpectedly. For PPP it was a business as usual as stated by PPP president, Punjab while talking to media with the resolve to regain the popular support by reinvigorating the people’s politics narrative the Party is known for.

The election result suggests that about 65000 voters, who voted in favour of PTI candidate last time, had turned against it this time and voted in favour of opponent party little known candidate. It was like turning around of the tsunami against its mover and shaker, PTI. The PML-N was not hopeful of winning the seat what to talking of inflicting such a defeat that busted the perception of PTI popularity to the ground. The public opinion presumably has turned against the PTI to the whopping level. The PTI defeat had raised many questions on the party’s strategy that failed to deliver miserably. It may be true that single result may not represent the mood of the entire country, and hence reading too much between the lines may not be right to draw accurate conclusions. It is also true; a couple of grains give sufficient information about the feast cocking. Food for thought.

The Chairman of PTI Imran Khan while uncharacteristically conceding the defeat had called upon the Party leadership for the urgency of “introspection” to formulate the new strategy destined to not only retrieving the lost grounds but also breaking new grounds of popular support. The statement may be his attempt to boost the morale of his Party that must be at the lowest ebb today. To infuse new dynamism among the workers would be daunting task because the time may not be on his side as the general elections are around the corner. The political misfortune of the PTI may have begun at a time when it is pretty difficult to turn the political tide to its advantage again. The new strategy may not deliver because it optimizes too little too late at this stage. Timing plays a critical role in politics akin to almost magic wand. It makes difference between success and failure.

PTI leadership has lost the precious time by getting too much entangled in distractions of negative politics entailing spewing venom on his political opponents rather than enthusiastically popularising his programme to ameliorate the lot of all and sundry. The serious and well-wishers of PTI chairman handed out to him unblemished pieces of advice after the elections 2013 to focus to make KPK as model province to convince the people of other provinces of the impeccability of his leadership solely committed to improve their quality of life through delivery of services in job creation, health and education, provision of clean drinking water, dispensation of speedy and inexpensive justice and above all security of life and property to the KPK people who had been suffering due to the evil of extremism and terrorism for too long. His successes in the KPK province would have served as spring board to land in Islamabad’s corridor of power with the massive support of the people of the entire country. That did not happen. Unfortunately, his haste to come to power, by hook or crook, cost him dearly.

The performance of the KPK government under PTI may be short of the people’s reasonable expectations. The opposition parties, PPP, PML-N, ANP and JUI-F are flexing their muscles and are quite confident that they would defeat the PTI and its allies to form the next government after the 2018 elections. They are confident and determined to cash on the failures of the PTI government in the province. The mood of the people may be suggesting so because they are not better off and time for making qualitative difference may be already over now.

Francis Bacon’s saying sadly personifies the political fate of the PTI leadership: —‘ lame man who takes the right path outstrips the runner who takes the wrong one’. Ironically, the leadership’s imperviousness and haste put it on wrong path looking for short cuts for the ultimate elevation to the office of the chief executive by ‘hook or crook’. The months long sit-in agitation was launched to delegitimise the existing democratic institutions under the pretext of rigged elections demanding resignation of the then prime minister. It was in public domain that he had the covert support of the some retired and serving army generals in bringing unconstitutional political change. The waiting for the ‘third empire’ finger brought the truth in open. The wish was not granted so the Party remained in the rut only to face the fall out of lamentable nature. The PPP and other parties stood against PTI and its cohort’s misadventure to bring political change through unconstitutional means. The game plan fizzled out. Dr Tahirul Qadri also left PTI in the middle of flash flood to face the inevitable.

The PTI political strategy to excel in negative politics did not pay expected dividends. It was generally believed as wastage of precious time of the nation. The sustained campaign of agitation by the Party also tarnished the image of the country as the Party workers ransacked the state institutions. The flashing of the scenes in the international media of protestors digging collective graves wearing shroud (Kaffin) invoked the sentiments of contempt rather than sympathy globally.

The Chinese president had to postpone his visit to Pakistan who was coming to visit the country with the package of amazing 46 billion dollars investment in Pakistan through CPEC. The scourge of extremism and terrorism had been devouring the civilians and the brave soldiers and his insatiable quest for power was highly misplaced. His allegation of rigging was also proved as hoax when Supreme Court Commission gave the verdict that there was no planned rigging in the 2013 elections. The silent majority of the country was watching his moves of negative politics that disappointed them thoroughly. His confession of 35 punctures attributed to an American diplomat was height of his parochialism. How could he afford to put the future of the democracy and indeed of the people just like that?

The people, it seems, also did not endorse his politics of allegations and poring insults on his political opponents by using unsavory lexicon. His open gate policy of accepting the corrupt electable from other parties also took toll in bringing out the contradictions of the leadership drive against corruption. The parting of the ways of highly revered people like Justice (R) Wajiuddin, Tasneem Noorani, Javed Hashmi and many other founding members put the breaks in the popular surge of the PTI because these people were known for their independent views and very well respected among the cross section of the society. The arbitrary slamming of the doors of the Party for them instead of listening to them hurt the democratic credentials of the Party and its leadership. The news of frustration of the Party workers and infighting had been occupying the prominent space in the media.

The perception, right or wrong, of alignment of a political entity with the Establishment may be no more vote winning. The political entities those used to flaunt their association have lost their appeal to the voters and such reduced to as abject losers. Political standing of such entities today speaks loudly and clearly boarding relic of the past. Political engineering has become far less consequential. Chairman Bilawal Bhutto called it ‘farce’.

The Balochistan political upset could not be staged in other provinces may be due to the same reason. The most likely continuity of the upper house (Senate) may have put cold water on the anti-democratic forces those were on overdrive to force the disruption in the democratic process. There is irreversible consensus in the country in favour of the constitutional rule. Those who bent backward to inflict disruption seemed to have been marginalised. One of the manifestations of the trend may be the Lodhran by-election. A very good development indeed for the democracy and for the country. For, Pakistan and democracy are inseparable. The tyrants who severed this linkage during their watch only succeeded in breaking the country, pushing the nation in the wars of others, nurturing terrorists and extremists an injecting the culture of drug, guns and hypocrisy. Nothing could be more hostile to the country.

muhammadshaheedi@yahoo.com