KARACHI: The ‘revolutionary’ demonstrations that have besieged Islamabad over the past few days have thrown up a wide variety of references, imagery and metaphors. While the themes of ‘revolution’ and ‘freedom’ have been the most prevalent, Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri have made liberal use of political, religious and, particularly in the former’s case, cricketing jargon to communicate their respective messages.

Let’s start with the whole concept of ‘long marches’. While — as pointed out in these pages a few days ago — the federal capital has seen a number of protest movements termed long marches over the past few decades, it would be interesting to find out how many in both the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistani Awami Tehreek camps actually know about the historical background of the term.

After all, the event that gives the long march its name involved an actual communist armed force — the Red Army — marching thousands of miles across China to fend off the Nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek. The journey started from Jiangxi province in 1934 and, one year later, concluded in the northern Shaanxi province.

Of course leading the Red Army were the pillars of the modern communist state in China, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, who started off with around 86,000 marchers. By the time they reached Shaanxi they were down to 8,000 or so men.

Death, disease and fatigue constantly confronted Mao’s men, but the successful conclusion of the march was a huge boost to the communist forces that would go on to proclaim the People’s Republic in 1949, forcing Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang nationalists to retreat to Taiwan.

Compared to several thousand miles covered by Mao and Zhou’s men in a year’s time, the PTI and PAT long marchers merely had to traverse around 400km or so between Lahore and Islamabad. Also, while the communists were in a state of civil war, trying to hold off Nationalists and unfriendly warlords while at the same time dealing with difficulties of life on the march, things were decidedly different for the PTI/PAT cadres. The Azadi and Inqilab marches looked more like carnivals, with a disc jockey pumping bhangra tunes, a dancing malang and other sideshows in tow.

Let’s move to Imran Khan’s call for ‘civil disobedience’. This is a loaded term, especially if seen in the context of epochal events of the 20th century. If we look at the motivations for various civil disobedience movements, we don’t see any parallels to the current situation in Pakistan.

For example, during the 1950s and ’60s black Americans resorted to civil disobedience to protest against racist and exclusionary laws that treated them as third-class citizens. Gandhi’s satyagraha and non-cooperation movements were aimed at forcing His Majesty the Emperor’s Government to quit India and grant the natives freedom. And perhaps closest to home, the civil disobedience movement initiated by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman following his March 7, 1971 speech led to the dismemberment of united Pakistan. Are any of these situations comparable to what Pakistan is currently undergoing?

Imran Khan has also said he “we will free Pakistan of Pharaohs”. The image of a righteous Musa dethroning a wicked Firaun (Pharaoh) has often been employed before. It was perfectly effective during Iran’s Islamic Revolution. One remembers seeing a poster of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in the role of Musa, dethroning Mohammad Reza, the last Shah of Iran, cast in the part of Pharaoh. Hosni Mubarak, the erstwhile strongman of Egypt, was also termed by his opponents as a modern ‘Pharaoh.’ But despite their faults (and there are many), have the current rulers reached the level of despotism that the Shah and Mubarak were known for?

Of course Imran Khan is not the only one using religious imagery here. After all, this is what comes naturally to cleric-politician Tahirul Qadri. He has constantly been using images of martyrdom and sacrifice in his speeches. He has claimed inspiration from Imam Hussain’s epic stand at Karbala and painted his opponents as tyrants. This also is understandable because for a vast majority of Pakistanis — Shia and Sunni — Karbala is a powerful, evocative symbol that represents the ultimate battle of truth against tyranny. Allama Sahib understands this well, which is why he has said “his chest is bare for those who want to strike” him. Yet we must ask if the current system can justifiably be compared to despotism of that era.

Allama Qadri’s ideology seems to draw equally from Islamic history as well as socialism. He has compared himself to Lenin, Marx and even Stalin (!), yet said he wants to build a Pakistan based on the Quran and the “vision of Jinnah and Iqbal”. Perhaps he is inspired by the leftist liberation theology of Latin American Catholic priests.

But the images have not all been sombre references to politics and religion. Imran Khan, for one, has made ample use of cricketing banter. For example, the former skipper noted that as a fast bowler he had no patience (which has become amply obvious), while taking one of many jibes at Nawaz Sharif, Mr Khan said the prime minister would only play ball if ‘his’ umpires were appointed.

The PTI chief knows that the 1992 victory at the cricket World Cup was one of this country’s few bright spots in its tumultuous history. Perhaps, then, the captain of that winning team was trying to tell his compatriots that if they liked what they saw at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, wait till they see him in action in Prime Minister House.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2014