AT PENPOINT
The PTI rally to mark the first anniversary of the February 8 election was something of a damp squib, and with the 2nd anniversary of the May 9 attacks approaching, showed that the party was being reduced to one which had collected commemorations of tragedies for itself.
It should be noted at this point that the next significant date for the party is 25 April, the anniversary of its founding in 1996. However, that founding seems of less importance than the date of its climactic clash with the military, which led to the party losing such a large part of its workers and leaders.
It should be noted that the PML(N) and the PPP have given central importance to their founding days. The PML(N) does not pay much attention to its own founding day, which dates back to 1993, but commemorates the 1906 founding in Dhaka of the All-India Muslim League. The PML(N) founder, Mian Nawaz Sharif, is still around. However, his birthday is the same as that of the Father of the Nation, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and both are the same as Christmas. The PML(N) does not pay any respects to the first permanent AIML President, Agha Khan III.
The PPP lays great store by its Foundation Day. It also marks the birthdays of its previous Chairmen, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Nusrat Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto. One reason the PTI may avoid celebrating its founder’s birthday is that he is still alive (though there have been sporadic celebrations of Mian Nawaz Sharif’s birthday, even though he is very much alive), and another may be that he is sensitive about his age, for it seems problematic for a septuagenarian to claim the youth vote.
The AIML can claim to be one of the most successful parties of all time, for a purely party occasion, the passage of the Pakistan Resolution, is marked by Yaum-i-Pakistan, and is a national holiday. However, it does not mark any of its ascents to power, though its formation of the central government took place on 14 August 1947, the commemorations are free of that factor, and Independence Day is meant for everyone, even for those religious parties that had opposed the creation of Pakistan.
None of the parties have marked any of their defeats in any way, not as the PTI marked the February 8 anniversary. True, it alleges that the election was stolen, but other parties have alleged that the election was rigged, and do not mark Black Day on that anniversary. The PPP alleged that the 1988 election was rigged, but does not mark the occasion, even though it also marks the return to power of the PPP after 11 years. It also does not mark the formation of the PPP Patriots, when the party, whose parliamentary party was split, to create the PPP Patriots, who gave military dictator Pervez Musharraf the majority he needed to have his PM elected after the 2002 elections.
One reason for this is that parties’ memories are limited by the election cycle. If the PPP had complaints about the 1988 and 1990 elections, it did win in 1993, and 2008. The PTI has not complained about the 2024 elections as far as KP goes, for it not only won overwhelmingly in the KP Assembly, but also the province’s national seats. It is perhaps inevitable that parties’ complaints of rigging should be dismissed as the proverbial sour grapes, especially since the rigging is no longer blatant. The 1977 elections are widely accepted as rigged because enough voters’ experience confirms they were: votes already cast, booths captured, impersonations, all the usual malpractices. If the elections are rigged now, it is done subtly, and within certain narrow limits. Most importantly, the voter does not know/
Whatever the case, a party can claim to have won an election it lost. It can claim the seats it won as the result of too large a margin to overcome by those manipulating the result. Parties are also stuck with how to explain the elections they won. The latest example is how the PTI can reconcile its win in the 2018 elections with its loss in the 2024 elections. In short, if the results were manipulated to ensure their defeat in 2024, surely they were manipulated to ensure their victory in 2018?
However, it becomes an article of faith for party supporters to claim that defeats were the result of rigging, and winning their prescriptive, almost divine, right. It allows the party to explain its defeat, to give its cadres a talking point in encounters with workers of the winning party. So far, at least, no party has been able to use rigging as a rallying cry, the only occasion this happened being in 1977?
Does the PTI have any option other than to join talks? If it thinks that it can revive its fortunes, or if US President Donald Trump can somehow play a role in springing Imran, then talks are not an option. But if it wishes to see its support dissipated even further, it should take what it can while it can, which can only be done by talking.
The PTI seems to be a lopsided party, with too much weight given to its founder. It is something to be expected within the Pakistani context, where political parties are actually just vehicles for certain individuals and their heirs. However, those in the PTI see Imran as being able to deliver governance in accordance with their expectations.
There has also developed a sort of personality cult, and at present the party is concentrating on getting Imran out of jail. This also means that it cannot really talk to the government, The talks breakdown was perhaps inevitable, for even if he was to do a deal, there would really be no way of holding Imran to it, especially if it meant his having to give up on his confrontational style.
There has been much talk of his having trained a young generation in rudeness, but no one has spoken about why voters, all above 18 and including people in their middle age, old age and dotage, voted for him, bad manners and all. Could it be because of that very rudeness? The gratuitous insults to public figures reflects an anger at politicians, indeed at all figures of authority, that has not dissipated. Politicians merely express the sentiments of constituents, and as Imran has made boorishness a trademark, to ask him to give it up would have been too much.
The problem seems to have become that the PTI nuisance value has apparently declined. The rally to mark the first anniversary of the ‘stolen’ election, in Swabi, did not yield as large a crowd as anticipated. The PTI has tried to talk up the rally, the PML(N) to talk it down, but it should not be forgotten that Swabi is a new district hived off from Mardan, and while it is the hometown of Former National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, it is hardly the centre of the universe.
The flashy PTI rally was supposed to be in Lahore, what with former MNA Aaliya Hamza appointed Punjab Chief Organizer just before the rally; but with the local administration refusing permission on security grounds, the PTI may have been spared its blushes.
Indeed, ever since the government saw off the ‘now-or-never’ Islamabad rally, which was dispersed on November 19, with the PTI still insisting that 12 people were killed, the PTI seems to have its teeth pulled. The Civil disobedience’ call that succeeded it was not taken seriously by the PTI itself, though the government gave it enough credence to opt for talks.
Does the PTI have any option than to join talks? If it thinks that it can revive its fortunes, or if US President Donald Trump can somehow play a role in springing Imran, then talks are not an option. But if it wishes to see its support dissipated even further, it should take what it can while it can, which can only be done by talking.
