Dear dictator, your rally really sucked
Dear dictator, Your ‘show of power’ in Karachi was, if I may respectfully say disappointing and anti-climatic. Despite all your tall claims of having massive public support, and an equally large Facebook following, you did not garner enough support to draw even close to 10,000 people at your rally. Leaders from your party proudly boasted that your rally would be bigger than Imran Khan’s, yet one can only wonder what happened and where you went wrong. Maybe if the attendees were paid more than Rs1,000 and a plate of biryani, you would have been able to fill the ground. Not only ...
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The rights and wrongs of Imran Khan’s politics
With the Arab Spring sweeping away dictators world over, Pakistanis too are looking for a revolution to get rid of its democratically elected government. Interestingly, they have found new hope in the Niazi from Mianwali. Former cricketer turned philanthropist turned politician, Imran Khan, is probably the most popular politician in Pakistan today. While Pakistan will never get its Arab Spring, a change in the political landscape is definitely a looming reality. Previously naive Khan has learnt some vital lessons from his mistakes, and has started to mature. He is careful to not criticize the military and its top brass – apparently he has ...
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The Karachi tsunami strikes
The successful PTI rally in Karachi proves one thing for sure, especially to the Imran Khan naysayers and doubters: that come next election, his party will be a formidable force to reckon with. A bulk of the audience comprised youth, many of them presumably disenchanted with the way politics is done in this country. Of course, his party has already accepted several former ministers and members of parliament from the PML-Q and one heavyweight from the PML-N in the shape of Javed Hashmi. Mr Hashmi stood on three seats in the last general election and won all three and is ...
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The Republican threat
Several weeks ago, US presidential candidates from the Republican party descended on Washington to participate in a televised debate on foreign policy. They wasted no time in unleashing a torrent of invective about Pakistan. Michele Bachmann described it as “a nation that lies, that does everything that you could imagine wrong.” Jon Huntsman declared it “a nation-state that is a candidate for failure.” Rick Perry contended that “they’ve showed us time after time that they can’t be trusted.” Some of the nastiest language came from the two frontrunners. “Help us, or get out of the way,” warned Newt Gingrich, “but don’t complain ...
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Imran Khan’s nemesis: The Parliamentary system
Those previously in doubt of Imran Khan’s growing popularity must have either slept through the whole of Sunday, or exiled themselves in to a state of oblivion to be still holding on to their flawed perceptions. To say that PTI’s October 30 rally was a success is probably an understatement. The sea of people in attendance (near 100,000 according to estimates) in the main heartland of Punjab was not just a slap on arch rival PML-N’s face and evidence of support for PTI, but it also symbolized the growing aspiration for change amongst the population. The slogan ‘Imran the only hope ...
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I saw elections in Denmark, and I’m impressed
While we’re still arguing about whether democracy is a good form of government or not in Pakistan, the people of the Kingdom of Denmark have elected their first ever female Prime Minister. Interestingly, the 15th of September is celebrated as World Democracy Day; the same day democracy has won in this Scandinavian country. While Denmark has enjoyed an excellent reputation for respecting human rights and promoting equality among its citizens, for the period of a decade it has had stringent immigration laws on visa applicants in order to restrict immigration. The country already has one of the most restrictive immigration ...
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Video Blog: Wake up and vote
This video was created by Jaag Utho - a youth mobilization campaign by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). Jaag Utho volunteers Nasir and Rizwan were the brains behind the video. Election Commission of Pakistan is conducting a door-to-door voter verification campaign from August 22 to September 30, 2011. In this campaign they will visit each house in Pakistan to verify the electoral lists according to the data given by NADRA. Voter registration is one of the most critical steps in bringing a change to Pakistan. It is the duty of each and every citizen to use the power of their vote. I especially appeal to the youth ...
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A woman at the helm in Thailand
A business woman becoming a politician? No less a prime minister? Whoever heard of such a thing! Thailand’s 2011 elections brought interesting results as Yingluck Shinawatra (former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s sister) stepped up as the next prime minister, the first woman prime minister, in fact, to grace Thailand’s political stage. And not surprisingly, most women are very supportive of what they hope will be a positive change. Most people were of the opinion that the men of the country had been given enough chances to run the country but had failed to solve most problems. Thailand had had enough. ...
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Musharraf is just not a good brand
The Musharraf brand, if you will, is pretty toxic. For all the talk of grassroots contact campaigns, the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) rarely hits headlines, or captures public imagination. It doesn’t help that the leader of the APML, Pervez Musharraf himself, is not in the country. He is spending most of his time criss-crossing the United States (US), meeting various local support bases among the expatriate community. I guess his brand value is greatest among ineligible voters. APML’s political strategy remains a mystery. The much publicised Facebook support base cannot be counted on. Musharraf has stated that he will return to Pakistan ...
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MQM: Let the games begin
That the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) isn’t by now used to the “chicanery” of its senior partner in the coalition government portrays either naivete or clever calculation. In MQM’s case, naivete should more or less be discounted because the party has spent the better part of eight and a half years in power corridors – counting, of course, its five-year stint with the previous regime. It is hard not to understand, if not master, the laws of power, no matter how dysfunctional they may seem in our polity, in such a consecutive period. And yes the party has had ...
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