Here comes the change?

There is a strange feeling in the air these days. No its not the smell of rotting blood from the carcasses strew about after Eid ul adha but something a little more unfamiliar. Everywhere I go and whoever I meet talks about one subject alone, what should we make of “Imran Khan” Previously the same drawing rooms were full of talk about an exit strategy and plan b but it seems that after the mammoth PTI jalsa in Lahore the sentiment has changed towards that of hope rather than dismay for Pakistan.

 

So you would ask dear reader, what the heck is wrong with that? Well let me clue you in, false hope my friends is a far far more damaging thing then dismay. Where dismay keeps you completely grounded in reality and what is actually happening, hope gives your imagination flight and there is no greater damage to a human being then when that dream shatters.

 

I may not be an analyst but I have learnt one thing in my life and that is to smell B.S from far far away. A Party which has not fought the last election, has no political track record to speak off and is now boasting of a clean sweep without as much as a one seat guarantee is definitely a party which knows something that the rest of us don’t. Either that or they are so naive that they do not deserve to be a party and this notion at least in my view does not hold true after Lahore.

 

So what is the one thing that they do know? Does it have something to do with the fact that right now the people of Pakistan are so tired of their current governance that they would prefer anyone over them? Or is it that somewhere somehow this party has gotten a nod or some special leverage to play a role in the change that is about to come in Pakistan.

 

Oh yes I do believe that change is going to happen. However if people think that PTI will somehow gain an electoral majority in Punjab and come into government and then fix everything, they are living in a fool’s paradise. The most that may be achieved is an entry into the halls of power of this country. However what will really be the key is what PTI does after gaining some seats. Yes I know they have been promising the sky and the moon but to me that is perhaps the biggest failing of this party, the bubble of hope that they are blowing up much like the obama campaign which I may add has striking similarities to PTI’s current campaign, rock bands at rallies et all. Once obama got elected into power he went downhill every time he could not deliver on the lofty ideals he had promised his voters and so I fear will PTI and Imran.

 

Not to mention the fact that taking in all sorts of people from other parties in the guise of “electables” isn’t going to be adding stars to their image later on. Yes these career politicians can win you seats but then they want something in return and that is where the litmus test of PTI will happen. To date every party in Pakistani politics has failed this litmus test and have had to make compromises to keep seats within their fold, I think PTI will end up the same way, much more powerful then it is today but a behemoth which loses its direction and ends up much like the other political parties of Pakistan, disillusioned and detached from their voters.

 

So should we stop hoping? Should we give up on this country? No we should not. Frankly this party does have quite a few honest individuals in it working behind the scenes but the over whelming proclamations of “here comes the messiah” should be taken with quite a large pinch of salt. As it is I do not think any political party will shape the future of this country,. To me the future will be shaped by our youth in their overwhelming majority who will one day rise and do away with this bastion of beuracracy & dynastical politics. They will not follow a single party to do this because they will not need to, they will elect people from amongst their ownselves to rule and that will be the clean sweep I will wait for and support.