Why Pakistanis must vote, despite a challenging election
July 25, 2018. For the second time in the 70 years of my fascinating, complex, and much loved homeland, general elections will take place as per schedule. Two governments so far have completed their full term. Hallelujah. One box ticked in the index of democracy that Pakistan almost is — fledgling, precarious, tottering, but a democracy nonetheless.
The next box will be ticked when one elected prime minster completes his/her full term. You see, in Pakistan, only military dictators — yes, the uniformed gentlemen who oust elected governments on various pretexts of incompetence, corruption, misgovernance, making many a promise to set the country on a path of glory, prosperity and peace — rule for many years. Their promises remain as hollow as the sound of loud-pitched politicians during electoral rallies: bluster over truth, rhetoric over workable plans.
There is a great deal of noise in Pakistan right now. Nawaz Sharif and his daughter are in jail. There are angry cries of pre-election rigging, interestingly, by the PML-N that just finished its governmental tenure in the centre and Punjab, the biggest province in terms of representation in the National Assembly. In loud headlines are the judicial decisions that while being hailed as timely justice from the major opponents of PML-N, like the Imran Khan-led PTI, and Asif Zardari-led PPP, are tagged as Machiavellian removal of political bigwigs in the guise of judicial expediency.
Three horrific bomb blasts, one that had the most casualties in the bloodied history of terror in Pakistan, in Mastung, Peshawar, and Dera Ismail Khan, are said to be the price of having elections in a country that is still fighting many battles within its borders, fearing enemies from within and without.
And amidst the din are whispers loud enough to be a child shouting in a bullhorn at 4am that the establishment is the puppet master, weakening certain political parties, strengthening its favourite ones, removing popular politicians using the excuse of court verdicts, and paving the way for Imran Khan to become the next prime minister. What good will that do to anyone in the long run is a question not many are willing to ask aloud. Civilian institutions are said to be systematically weakened, but what good would that do to the military establishment is an enigma to many who despite being strict proponents of democracy hold the military in very high esteem. They ask, mostly in an incoherent murmur: What would the military gain ruling, indirectly, covertly, behind the scenes, a country that is so weak its economy is in tatters, its water scarce, its millions of children out of school, its countless dying of curable diseases, its nameless many dying in suicide attacks?
Shehbaz Sharif, Imran Khan, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who will be the next prime minister of Pakistan, my concern is beyond that.
Much is written about the vitiation of civilian supremacy in Pakistan, but there is one thing that truly bothers me whenever I think about casting my vote: No one in power or hoping to be in power truly gives a damn about the country that I love, that I call home. Nothing changes for the millions of Pakistanis who vote, standing in queues longer than the list of their woes, their days of toil, their long, uneasy nights of troubled sleep. Whoever comes in power arrives with the same fake smile of I-am-the-messiah-you-have-been-waiting-for, same promises of providing bijli, naukri aur insaaf, same pats and nods of things will be good now. Years pass, and nothing changes. Not for the aam aadmi.
Clean water is not a luxury. Cheap but good quality healthcare cannot be just a promise. Same schooling for all children of Pakistan is not a utopian idea, impossible to achieve. Paved streets with a proper sewerage system running narrowly in front of rundown, tiny, congested houses are not hard to construct. Affordable food items are not a favour. Providing of employment for educated youth is not teaching rocket science to a person in coma. Safety of life cannot merely be words. Speedy justice through courts is not a scene from a Bollywood film. It is all humanity 101, governance 101.
Your politicians cannot fool you forever, what you expect and what you get is not a reflection of what your rights are, what you deserve. You should have it all and without asking. You are not because of your leaders, your leaders are because of you. It is your vote that turns a vote-collecting politician into a chief minister, a prime minister, a master of your destiny. It is your vote that decides who gets to decide what happens to you, your children, and your country. It is your vote that does it all.
Vote. There is no other option. Vote, and think before you do. Who you vote for will delineate the roadmap of your country. And when you vote don't vote because you support a particular political party. Think why you support that party. Why you are willing to vote for A, B or C.
Vote for the person who gives a damn. Vote for the person who thanks you for your vote, and greets you with a 500-watt smile long after the elections. Vote for the person whose smile fades when he hears your story of grief. Vote for the person who doesn't just shake his head and offers a condolatory message when your loved one is killed in a bomb blast. Vote for the person who you know will be there if your child goes missing, if you seek justice, if your father dies of undiagnosed cancer, if your mother needs a job, if your family is starving, if your daughter is raped, if your son is exploited by a gang of child pornography racket.
Vote for the person who ensures that education is attainment of knowledge and enlightenment, not merely acquiring of degrees. Vote for the person who ensures there is a job when you finish your education. Vote for the person who is human enough to make an error of judgement and is man/woman enough to own up and make amends. Vote for the person who respects women and doesn't consider empowerment of women as a mere election slogan. Vote for the person for whom gender inequality is a word he read in a book that he can't relate to. Vote for the person for whom gender equality is a given.
Vote for the person who believes justice is a way of life, who advocates across-the-board accountability, who understands the concept of accountability when serving in a position of power. Vote for the person who follows the rules, the law, and is not in constant search of loopholes in the system to accumulate illegal wealth, to gain more. Vote for the person who wishes to see Pakistan be rid of foreign aid and foreign debt, instead of looking for tax-free havens to conceal his ill-gotten money, establishing ghost companies to dodge payment of taxes on which his own country runs.
Vote for the person who believes in acceptance of various faiths while holding his own sacred, not give mere lip service to the idea of tolerance when faced with contrarian views and opposing ideologies. Vote for the person who stands up for all who are persecuted in the name of religion. Vote for the person who works to make Pakistan a country that is for all who live here, regardless of their faith, colour, ethnicity and material class. Vote for the person who denounces militant organisations, reject the use of militancy for hegemony, and never uses extremism as a tool of exploitation.
Vote for the person who as a civilian leader is proud of his country's armed forces but is ethically strong and morally upright to stand up for the position and power vested in him by the constitution. Vote for the person who proudly as a patriot has the vision to see Pakistan practise a liberal, farsighted foreign policy, and has non-confrontational, friendly, bilateral trade-based relations with all its neighbours. Vote for the person who recognises the immense promise of Pakistan and work to empower it as a country that stands proudly on its merits and is not ever used as a pawn in geostrategic games of big powers. Vote for the person who loves Pakistan more than the idea of short-term power and long-term material gains. Vote for the person who loves Pakistan beyond self, beyond his position, beyond his family, beyond his name.
Vote for the person whom you have not voted for and tested and seen him fail. You owe it to yourself, your child, your parents, your buried ancestors, your coming generations, your soul, your heart, your conscience. And your homeland that exists because you do. Do not let anyone take this power from you. You are your country, and your country is you. Vote for you. Vote for your country. The winner will be both. You'll see. If not tomorrow, some day, but it will happen.