By: Sarmad Shahbaz
Pakistan’s socio-political park has one of the most adventurous, and ragged merry-go-rounds with numerous stakeholders. Whether one agrees or not, all of these stakeholders have been involved in the construction, renovation, and destruction of current political situations. However, one must take into account the innocence of political entities i.e., the politicians and elected representatives, considering the majority. They are the only stakeholders who have never been given the fair share of their tickets to ride on the so-called power swing in the park. All they do is stand at the corner, with their tickets in hand, and let others budge in on their seats. Politically incorrect as it sounds but it is a deplorable truth.
This innocence came out to be a catastrophic dishevel for the wanderers in the park. By wanderers, one must understand the general public. You and I are the most relevant political subjects but we remained most irrelevant on the map of Pakistani political history. This happens everywhere, but not every time. Although the wanderers are the most relevant people for this play, they rose after seven decades to look into the ongoing political turmoil. Nevertheless, these wanderers got heavily influenced and fascinated by the most wayward and charismatic riders of the game. Mic drop!
Our not-decided-yet out-going Prime Minister Imran Khan is that rider. Undeniably, Mr. Imran has been a loud and stentorian of all the riders. Perhaps being the most heeded, the words poured out of his mouth have been devastating for the wanderers. The words make a puzzle for the wanderers i.e., the people, that the rider is enjoying. Perhaps, the rider indeed is, but with joy, he is irritating the whole working environment. Not so workable plot, but a decent democratic and liberal setup, for that the later means. As this working office went on the continuous bargaining, the time has come for this popular-attractive rider to go off and start getting the reflection on the gameplay of political, social, and economic realms.
As the rider has been exhausted and is to be sent packing by alleged foreign forces, the cracks on the pitch of politics will never recover. These cracks will grow and there is no offing of them getting rejoined, at least any time soon. To discover how these cracks got the foundation in the first place, we need to shed light on the political turmoil of the past one decade and a half. From 2008 till the present, Pakistan’s political gameplay has been either in the hand of apolitical unseeable forces or it is majorly influenced by the blocs of world order. The tripolar world order has impacted the realpolitik but the tables got turned by the internal schism. In the last decade, our as-of-today Prime Minister has been palpable in turning of these table into complete conundrum. He has not only revived the immature long lost roots of populist politics but also made the people of Pakistan ideologically post-truth believers in their political themes. Majorly the young people, a trademark of an ill-cared segment exploited with bogus promises, have been compromised.
Since coming into power, PTI’s political rhetoric has been bashing the past and predicting the future. They have given little or no attention to the circumstances of the present. This is not shocking but embarrassing for a political player having all-in support. Along with this, the anytime die-hard cult of Khan’s supporters rarely knows the objective and subjective realities. Politics is an objective, realistic, rational, and critical sphere. Looking at it with the goggles of optimistic and interwind subjectiveness is a fool’s play. Exactly what is happening in the present political game. Mr. Khan himself has bashed the previous government without any solid proof, got into a saber-rattling confrontation with the establishment, and made himself a self-doubting politico-religious figure. He used the chatter of a low-level diplomatic meeting as a threat to his throne and a letter as a death note for his match.
Foucault’s knowledge-power theory talks about the relationship between power and knowledge. The power decides what knowledge is to be attained and discredited. The showy political warriors of populist Khan do not know about theoretical political studies. All they know, believe and translate is what their super-fascio leader says. Replicating it in more sophisticated language at the cost of undermining opposition by saying no other candidate is suitable for the premier’s chair but Khan. All this has been educated by the premier and his cabinet to these political supporters. This is the utmost example of how the populism and post-truth theory of political systems work. When one becomes the object of designated knowledge, then one becomes the subject of concentrated power.
Not only a specific politician but the wholesome of Pakistan will have to bear the brunt of the furious statements given by the post-truth leader. Till this time, the premier has been going to any extent to save his throne and further make the naive followers more surreal by slave master morality lectures. From demagogue principles, making unprovable allegations of foreign pressure to demonstrating life-threatening scenarios, Khan’s ouster will make him a post-truth martyr. The similar is what happened in the 1970s. History repeats a vicious cycle. However, this vicious cycle brought a dark age in the post-1970s for nearly fifteen years. The only truth is that democracy remains under threat of slaughter and nothing else.
To sum up, politics backfires when shot in emotions and sentiments but hits the ambition bull-eyes with a rationale mindset. This is why politics is known to be a dirty game because emotions are innate in humans and rationality seldom prevails. Still, it depends upon one’s perception of dirty and clean games. You cannot take forward the game of politics like a sport or with charisma of personality. It involves the burden of historical analysis, future estimates, and present deliverance, all of these with concrete outcomes in the matter of practicality.
The writer is Pakistan-based political commentator and social critic with keen interests in political-economic sphere, social order and philosophy.
