I recently came across a story about a child in Pakistan who was taught by her mother that a potato is actually a boti because they couldn’t afford chicken and she didn’t want her child to feel that she was deprived of anything. This is a reality for most Pakistanis, not a minority but an overwhelming majority. I probably hate Imran Khan and his draconian policies as much as the next guy, but that doesn’t mean PDM should get your immediate support. While PDM’s fight for restoring democracy might be a fruitful one (if it ever ripens) for everyone but that by no means is reason enough for people to stand behind PDM. An organization built on the shoulders of representatives who’ve done little to nothing for this country.
Having your family martyred in the name of democracy doesn’t count, sadly. There are real hurdles and issues faced by everyday Pakistanis, including minimum wage, a lack of fair judiciary, rampant extremism and its resulting deaths, shortcoming of good public schools, deplorable police and Shia genocide. Over the last few weeks I’ve heard speeches and fervor from both sides of the isle and not a single so called leader detailed a plan for any of the points mentioned above. Imran Khan and Co. are busy doing all that is in their power to keep the boot shiny and watching the cricket highlights supposedly, because why care about the public – they’re basically saying support us or go to hell. On the other hand, Mariyam and Co. are busy brewing a revolution in which half of the time is being spent on painting Nawaz Sharif as a saint.
All the while the boots keep getting shinier and DHA gets closer to Delhi. But the real problem is the selfish and self-absorbed optimism of the supporters from both sides. As long as you have a roof over your head and a chota to bring you your first dinner of the night, it becomes easy to completely ignore or shutoff off criticism of the common man as jahalat or bought votes. In an ideal world we would had a better pool of candidates but unfortunately we don’t. What we do, however, is have our voice and power and without that, they are nothing. They need you as much as you need them, but if you don’t realize that and stay on the rally bandwagon like an extra from a low-budget zombie movie then keep marching to your own fall. But hey as long as your comfortably numb, it should be all good!