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“Electable” – a term which always has been used in connection with elections in Pakistan, and in fact, throughout the world, but what made it a buzzword in Pakistan for upcoming elections is a not-so-smooth relationship between PTI and the roar for change.
Whenever PTI has been accused of having establishment’s backing as it surprised everyone with the sudden surge; IK has always mentioned his 22 years long struggle as the real horsepower behind his rise. On more than one occasions, he claimed that those who are accusing PTI of being backed by the most powerful institution in this country are actually belittling the efforts, struggle, and sacrifices he and his followers have made.
This argument is generally followed by a rush of comments on social media where PTI supporters outnumber all other political parties combined. Stories of how much money IK could have earned based on his superstar cricketer status, his choice of pursuing a political career at the expense of everything he had, and the list go on. But, frankly speaking, that’s not the point.
The point is, even after 22 years of struggle, PTI is behaving exactly like a King’s party where electives are gathered under one umbrella in order to seat a particular person as the chief executive of the country. Not so long ago, Mush-regime applied the same formula to complete the numbers with the help of PML(Q); a party consisted of people who had only one merit point i.e. they were electable. However, Mush-regime can be excused as that’s exactly what you expect from someone who doesn’t have any roots in country’s political landscape and still wants to grab the chief executive seat, that too, quickly. Same concession can’t be given to any political party and PTI is not an exception in this regard.
For any political party, creating an electable is an extremely tough task; replacing an established electable is even tougher. It requires sustained onerous effort. The candidate has to be visible among the masses; he has to challenge the already established electable that can prove to be lethal, sometimes, even fatal; he has to behave as the leader of the area and maintain his influence over the people. These rules though vary from one constituency to another and every political party has to play its cards accordingly in different areas. Traits and qualities required to be an urban class electable are totally different than that for a rural class electable. However, there is one thing common among them; you have to spend a handsome amount of money.
IK has done a lot in his 22 years of struggle. Right from Shaukat Khanam Cancer Hospital to National University of Modern Languages, there is a long list of his achievements. However, none of these milestones are related to political struggle. Political struggle is about developing a narrative among masses, challenging the status quo and providing an alternate leadership. He has marked some of these checkboxes lately but that’s not an enough of sustained struggle that can result in the development of electable. It seems that IK thinks of himself as Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto whose persona was powerful enough to have astonishing victory over the military establishment and religious clout in 1970 election. And, if that’s the case, IK is seriously mistaken.
There are a lot of examples when political parties developed their own electable, especially in urban parts of the country. I can’t comment on other areas but as I am from Karachi, MQM and Jamaat-e-Islami are two political parties that come up to my mind. Both of these parties worked really hard to make their candidates house-hold names that were virtually unknown before that. Naeem-ur-Rehman from Jamaat-e-Islami and Mustafa Kemal from MQM (now PSP chairman) are perfect examples of how electable is developed from scratch. Seeing PTI going for Amir Liaquat under the excuse of ‘electable’ is not funny; it’s ridiculous and preposterous.
Am I denying the politics of electable in Pakistan? No, definitely not. In fact, the very history of the creation of Pakistan revolves around politics of electable. As Nadeem F Paracha mentions in his book, The Pakistan Anti-Hero, All India Muslim League under the leadership of Jinnah used the same tactic to sweep elections in 1946, especially in Punjab. What followed after the creation of Pakistan were just the consequences of that strategy.
Despite all the sincerity, the leadership of newborn Pakistan was simply can’t afford to go against the electable in the rural areas who played a pivotal role in 1946 election victory of Muslim League. Remember, elections of 1946 were the basis of Mulsim League’s demand of separate Muslims homeland as they proved that All India Muslim League is the only true representatives of majority population among Muslim majority areas. From the same areas, Muslim league was comprehensively beaten by Indian National Congress in 1940 elections.
Creation of Pakistan was a success but after 70 years, we have a dysfunctional state where a family committing suicide to run away from the difficulties of life is not an above the fold news anymore. This is not what Pakistan was meant for. As PTI, under the leadership of Imran Khan, is gearing up for Naya Pakistan, they need to make sure that this Naya Pakistan is different from the current one. And, with politics of electable, I highly doubt that it will be any different.
