Bravo! 60% turnout at this years elections, may the highest turnout ever but a little in depth research by any common man can show that these 60% of voters were not 60% population of this country we might be around 200 million in population no around 85 million were only registered voters, so by that calculation, in terms of population only 26% of the population voted, our next job is to get 149m people to vote but if that happens God bless our nation by the chaos on that day.
Build up to 11th May 2013
I have never seen such excitement around politics, the office meetings, dinners with family, drinks with friends and even conversations with domestic staff was around elections. I was lucky to have known all sets of people with various political affiliations and it was great to have heated debates on logical and most of the time illogical issues around elections. I till the time I stamped on ballot paper wasn't sure who I am going to vote for as I had left it on two things, 1) Anyone who gives me the most logical answer and a best reason to vote for their party 2) Scrutinize my local representatives. Sadly, there was no logical explanation nor there were much info on most of the representatives. Honestly that left me quite irritated as campaigning by friends and family was getting on my nerves and most of them were supporting PTI with no rationale at all.
Party analysis before elections
PTI - By far the best campaign to engage people and get them on board, if it wasn't for IKs charm he would not have so much support from people as his manifesto came out just days before election so most were blindly supporting them, in all honestly I can bet more than 90% of his supporters did not read his manifesto I did and it was quite obvious, to me MQM and PPP have a crafted their manifestos far more beautifully than PTI. Taking nothing away from PTI, they did manage to mobilize a lot of volunteers and banked on a lot of free media. Apart from a request to my activation agency to hire 30 boys and girls on Rs. 1,000/day to promote PTI in defence area. PTI got all the NAYA voters for their NAYA Pakistan. My brothers, mother and most of my family were in for Imran Khan with a single argument lets try him.
Party Internal Target: Leader of opposition and KPK Government.
PPPP- They seemed not interested apart from gaining their usual seats from Sindh, their campaign had two things, what others did and Bhutto legacy, It might and might not have worked as Sindh is their own in any case. I have a strong PPP support in my house as my dad went to school with most of the leadership, coming from Hyderabad I even have family ties with most of the PPP candidates. There were shirts with my family name in interior Sindh supporting Bhutto's party. Having said that my dad not even once asked any family member to vote for them and I have a strong feeling he himself did not vote for them but even if he did I can't blame him as his best friend is in PPP and he used to be PPP student federations President for Hyderabad in 70s. All that mattered was he voted in Karachi and went to Hala to be with his friends.
Party Internal Target: Sindh Government & Southern Punjab
PML-N - If not the best, they had the most effective and ethically correct campaign in which they just showed what they had done for Punjab province. Although they seemed shit scared of PTI, which was obvious as PPP played their cards well and just sat outside the ring to watch the fight in Punjab. A close friend of mine happened to be a die heart supporter of tiger party, usually we never agree but I happened to agree with him on his arguments to some extend. PML-N is a true cornered tiger for him but for me they have done well for Punjab.
Party Internal Target: Win outright, Punjab Government.
ANP - I believed they were formed for a reason and that reason was over, Best explained by their leader Shahi Syed, we will loose as we can't campaign our victory will be if we get out of this alive. I din't see their campaign but through a friend I managed to know about them. This friend of mine is a PPP supporter, from interior Sindh and represents quite a few minorities still living in Pakistan. His argument was simple, I live in Karachi and ANP can only give me security. Which is more than a valid reason for anyone to vote for anyone.
Party Internal Target: Few seats in Karachi, Selected seats in KPK.
MQM - Robin hood of Karachi, their campaign was around Altaf Hussain as expected but targeted common man with a glimpses of hope through Mustafa Kamal's footage, they also managed to mobilize their workers in getting the voters prepared for a war against the PTI burgers, a simple idea annoy and irritate them and they will go home. I personally don't like them but I always say, either keep them happy or eliminate them by force, there is nothing in between for this party. If it was in my hand I will keep them happy, whenever we have kept them happy, they have worked for Karachi and crime rate goes down. All they want is their territory, give it to them, they will be the best party for Karachi as their network is far more superior than any other party or agency in Karachi. Politics is not about winning, its about your strategic moves to utilize everyone's strengths for the betterment of nation. A colleague of mine is a supporter, ex worker who lost friends and family back in 90s but I have seen his blind support with few very valid reasons to support MQM, just by having heated discussions with them I have come to realize you can't talk him out of his rationals to support Mahjir Movement but you can plant a logic in him without force.
Party Personal Target: Karachi and Hyderabad
Elections Day
What a day, I had never seen average, above average and below average so excited to vote, credit must go to Imran Khan but nothing to take away from this nation who probably were more excited to vote as they had never seen a smooth transition of democracy and thats why I say give democracy time and everyone will learn, overnight revolutions will only bite you in your ass, read about Egypt and how Muslim brotherhood came to power, it takes years to successfully bring a revolution.
As my luck goes my constituency was NA 250 one of the most tricky place for MQM and PTI, the clash of burgers and desi's, the rich and poor, ok this is what i had been hearing. I along with my family and a Pakistani flag on my chest got to my polling station all I could do for next 30 mins was check out hotties because polling had not started and people were fighting over PTI caps, at the point i remembered what my father had told me a night earlier, MQM will delay the polling so we the privileged ones get frustrated and go home. No one went home and for that I had to stand 10 hours in a queue which was competing with snails and i tell you snails were much faster.
Generally it was a great day I did not see anyone loose patience and after a long time it was a proud moment to be among Pakistani's, PTI supporters were in high spirit and let me be honest they made those 10 hours worth standing for, I made quite a few friends who happened to be PTI supporters, we might connect later once the election fever dies out. friends from other constituency visited with cigarette, water and chips, ice cream and water was in unlimited stock. Felt like a grand picnic on Lane 14th.
Three instants that needs to be mentioned here;
- Rehman Malik visit
- No matter what he might have done in past the way PTI supporters welcomed him was disgraceful, specially when MQM leaders were sitting all day and no one had balls to say anything to them. From no on Rehman Malik will be known as Balls of Steel by me.
- Senior Citizen jumping queue
- An old man asked me if he could stand in front of me, I simply told him to ask behind me as there were other senior citizens behind me, to which others refused and a certain citizen shouted and made a scene cursing him disgracefully he had to negotiate his place with another young gentleman some 6 spaces behind me and right when I got my hand inked there came an ID card with a shout from behind 'saathi' the same senior citizen who shouted earlier got vocal to which the polling officer showed him eyes in a plea to shut up to which the shouting uncle was like "oh! VIP" and said not a single word after that.
- Picnic Litter
- The whole 14th lane was there for Naya Pakistan, yet street was over flowing with bottles and all that we ate and drank that day.
At my polling station it was clear that PTI was winning NA 250 as it was claimed by few people that there were no less than 100,000 people at this polling station that day to which the presiding officer interupted and said "Sir it can't be more than 15 to 20 thousand people as this polling station only has 28,000 people registered and all of them will never show up to which another guy said "Bullshit! there are atleast 50,000 people outside" to which everyone agreed. This brings me to the most important reality check for all the first time voters, lets just say if that day MQM would have won NA 250 the 15 thousand present at my polling station would have straight up rejected the result as they were convinced PTI had clean bowled not realizing they were standing in PTI stronghold and forgetting that MQM holds far more stronghold, its not a crime to support MQM, thats the beauty of your vote that everyone gets to vote for what they believe is right. Casting your vote is essential not casting your vote for PTI, and this understanding will only come with experience, so we need days like this every 5 years.
Post Election
After 10 hours I walked back home as I was too tired to wait for my brother to pick me up, One of my brother was already ready to go for his shoot, the other one got free 3 hours later as he got to know his polling station was different after waiting in the queue with us all day, mum got home early thanks to her senior citizen queue and dad was already in Hala with his childhood friends.
A day well spent, Almost. I got ready and started hoping at various election open houses (another new for me) again living in PTI stronghold meant I was with my PTI friends everywhere but finally I ended up with very few close friends to celebrate PML-N victory with the lone supporter I have in my friends circle.
The healthy debates continued but later on the news of rigging along with proofs started pouring in and one party stood out and it was none other than MQM. I did a bit of research to find out what might have happened in Karachi if it was an ideal situation, overall country turn over was 60%. In Karachi it was averaged 48%. People were surprised at MQM bagging 100,000 votes in Karachi need to understand that their strong hold constituencies are heavily populated and their registered voters are higher than ours and to facilitate that they have larger number of polling stations.
If PTI was expecting to win from Azizabad its their delusional goals not anyone else fault and if MQM had not rigged they might have won too, a peaceful solution was offered by one crazy MQM leader that 4 constituencies in dispute should have re-elections but PTI wanted and still wants re-election in whole of Karachi and may be in Lahore too. I have few questions to them, seriously? you really think you can win all seats in Karachi? try visiting MQM areas and see their blind support, and there is nothing wrong if people support them, it is their right to freely support whoever they want to support, PTI might have got 2 or maximum 3 seats in fair election but in re-election they wont be able to get more than 2, so why make all this noise and disturb the city. It was right to stand against wrong but as a politician one must find a way other than complete elimination and if you negotiate you will have a better chance to eliminate opponents in a longer run. Now lets take Punjab and specially Lahore, why do you think you had better support than PML-N? what do you have? Imran Khan and his honesty, which is not yet proven. What PML-N hold is a trust of local Punjabi who has seen him perform for them, who have a lot in their hand to show, yes they might not be like Imran Khan but they have facts to show you and it is our duty to respect their mandate. Rigging is an issue and needs to be solved and in a longer run I see this happening with advancement of technology.
Democracy needs time so does democratic leaders, Imran Khan will be the perfect opposition for PML-N and now he has a demo land to prove his claims and above all learn politics, get to know his leaders, opposition leaders and most importantly state secrets which I am assuming can not be shared with any politician unless he is in Parliament. I personally think, Imran might not be able to deliver what he had claimed in his build up but it is important for Pakistan that he delivers even half of it and most importantly learn and gain experience to get rid of big horses from Punjab and Sindh.
PTI Internal Target: Leader of opposition (almost achieved) and KPK Government.(achieved)
PPPP Internal Target: Sindh Government (achieved) & Southern Punjab (not achieved)
PML-N Internal Target: Win outright, Punjab Government.(achieved and 2 more provinces might be bonus)
ANP Internal Target: Few seats in Karachi (Not achieved), Selected seats in KPK.(Not achieved)
MQM Personal Target: Karachi and Hyderabad (Achieved losing credibility)
Revolution does not come overnight, it takes time and effort. we have seen 5 years of democracy for the first time, give it time, we might remain in dark ages for another 5 years but a leader is gaining experience and look beyond this government we actually might have a true leader who will be ready to lead us. If we give captaincy to someone who is not ready he surely will end up fucking our team, we can afford that but we can't afford that for a nation, specially when this young talent can be groomed and bring us back to our lost glory. Pakistan Zindabad!
Note: Our major concern should be Baluchistan Government as there is no clear lead over there
