It is dark side of the Pakistani politics that workers who adore, idealize and take every word of their leaders very seriously are duped and deserted by their leadership
Gulsher Panhwer
Quitting of PTI by Shireen Mazari and Fawad Chaudhry, Asad Umar’s quitting the general secretary position of the party has high demoralizing effect on PTI rank and file. My all sympathies to Dr. Mazari for “ordeal” she and her family underwent during her confinement as well as his fragile health. Fawad Chaudhary has also right to “take break from politics.” But question arises why top opposition politician’s health and family problem prop up when they face heat of government action. Fact of the matter is that these elite politicians are made for only doing power politics. Out of power they feel like fish out of water. They deliver fiery speeches, boasting that they would face jail and all kind of hardship including laying down their lives for the cause of democracy and for protection of national interest.
Simpleton and sincere political workers get duped and charged to go on any extent. Hundreds of PTI workers were rounded up and put behind bars in dark, unventilated and dingy jail and police station rooms. Video clips circulating on social media showing agitators of May 9 being tortured. But nobody expressed a sympathy for the common PTI workers who were thrown into jails and police stations. Furthermore, these workers were incited by IK, Shireen Mazari, Fawad Chaudhary and others. PTI leadership roared like loins and lioness and boasted to brave all kinds of “oppression” from the government. But when real test came, Fawad Chaudhary wept on TV channel recalling his first brief sojourn to jail. He was found running helter-skelter when police tried to apprehend him second time. Finally he broke ranks with the party.
If the leadership is so delicate, why they join politics. And more importantly why they pose valiant when they do not withstand minor heat of the imprisonment
Do workers don’t have families or health problems? Actually workers have more challenges then leaders. Workers mostly belonging to lower economic layers don’t have wherewithal to get lawyers’ service and afford bail expenses. The workers’ family suffer hunger and privation when the workers are in jail.
If the leadership is so delicate, why they join politics. And more importantly why they pose valiant when they do not withstand minor heat of the imprisonment. Politics in Pakistan is sometimes bed of roses and sometime bed of thorns. After Quaid-e-Azam, ZA Bhutto was the only statesman Pakistan produced. He proved his mettle and did not cave in. He suffered worst kind of jail conditions and despite looking the death in face for years did not breakdown. Zardari, though not of the stature of ZAB and with several shortcomings, withstood jail for 11 long years but did not surrender.
It is dark side of the Pakistani politics that workers who adore, idealize and take every word of their leaders very seriously are duped and deserted by their leadership. In Sindh, subnational leadership mesmerized the gullible workers to fight for the “cause of Sindh”. The communist sensitized their cadres to dedicate their lives for the cause of just and economically equal society. Majority of the leaders of both these strands, sub-nationalists and left leaning communist’s parties shifted their loyalists to one or the other ruling party in Pakistan. But the workers who dedicated their whole lives, abandoned their education and suffered jail, torture or even death did not get any sympathy, nay they got duped and cheated.
Similarly, 99 percent of the PPP old workers who faced jail, tear gas, flogging including those who were martyred during Zia military rule, did not get recognition and rehabilitation in Zardari-led dispensation.
The thousands of old workers either live obscure and economically miserable lives. Zardari has collected all winnable horses (feudal lords and Pirs). The workers, particularly old workers have no place in Zardari’s scheme of things.
Why don’t PTI workers understand that, the same Imran Khan who used to say that he would prefer do die than talk to the bunch of thieves and looters (Zardari and Shahbaz Sharif) but now he is ready to talk to everyone in power.
It’s high time for workers of all political parties to think millions of time before following their leadership
Why Imran is impatient for holding of the election instantly when he directed his MNAs to resign en mass and dissolve provincial assemblies. What kind of change he expects to get from new assembly which he could not get from previous assemblies and parliament. In fact after drabbing from the government his popularity is sure to going down and he may be able to grab fraction of seats in comparison to 2018 election when he was shining star of Pakistani politics. Why don’t PPP workers comprehend that after winning few seats in upcoming election Imran Khan have to form coalition government with the same “looters and plunders”. If he intends to opt for sitting on opposition benches, why he did not opt for that option rather than asking his MNAs to resign and dissolve provincial assemblies.
The bottom line of the political struggle in Pakistan is that with rare exception, leadership is selfish, cunning, power hungry and use the gullible workers as fodder to assume and enjoy power. They desert the sinking ship of one party and jump to bandwagon of the ruling party.
It’s high time for workers of all political parties to think millions of time before following their leadership footsteps, particularly when the former demands sacrifices and incites them to indulge in violent politics.
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Gulsher Panhwer is a freelance writer mostly touching the environmental, cultural, social and such other issues. He can be reached at gulsherp@yahoo.com
