Recently Imran Khan’s style of speaking at his party’s rallies has come under scrutiny. Commenting on the more than a dozen speeches that he has so far delivered at PTI’s anti-government dharna (sit-in) in Islamabad, his critics are of the view that he often uses ‘uncouth language’ and symbolism to demean his political opponents; which, in turn, further encourages his many young supporters to adopt similar patterns of speech in social media where they are already notorious for their ‘badtameezi’ (ill-mannered rants) and frequent bursts of expletives.

Though Khan can certainly be censured for espousing a style of speechmaking that is detrimental to the fine art of political oratory, the truth is, he did not introduce it in Pakistan.

Before Bhutto arrived on the scene in the late 1960s, political rallies and oratory in Pakistan were pretty ho-hum affairs. Bhutto changed all that by being witty and even a little wild at the rallies that he addressed.

He convincingly mimicked the antics of a reckless rabble rouser. This was one of the reasons why Bhutto ultimately managed to make his opponents appear listless and lacking in energy by comparison.

He would knock down the microphones in front of him and rip open his shirt and mock his opponents for being sissies, unmanly and stupid. His rallies became unique events as he played the role of an intoxicated political ‘malang’ (spiritual vagabond), who would often ridicule his opponents in the most unabashed manner. His supporters would respond by turning his rallies into carnivals of populist Sufi songs, slogans and dhamaal (impassioned Sufi dances).

However, as Bhutto’s opponents pumped up the drama factor and volume of their rallies (especially during the 1977 election campaign), it was quite apparent that they lacked the street-smart wit that Bhutto had mastered, though at times he did end up sounding just plain crude.

Stung by Bhutto’s antics in this respect, by the late 1970s, many of his opponents decided to gradually change the complexion of their rallies and oratory as well.

However, as Bhutto’s opponents pumped up the drama factor and volume of their rallies (especially during the 1977 election campaign), it was quite apparent that they lacked the street-smart wit that Bhutto had mastered, though at times he did end up sounding just plain crude.

So, minus the wit, the now animated rallies and speeches of the anti-Bhutto/PPP parties began to sound more like loudly laid out fatwas than anything even close to what Bhutto was up to in his gatherings.

For example, as Bhutto turned taunting his opponents for their conservatism into an art form, his opponents in their newly renovated style of speaking, retaliated by thumping the dais and loudly denouncing Bhutto’s ‘un-Islamic’ ways, calling him a drunkard and a womaniser.

After 1977, boisterous populism became a mainstay in the culture of rallies of almost all parties in Pakistan.

Other persuasive exponents of the Bhutto style were his daughter, Benazir Bhutto, and MQM chief, Altaf Hussain. Benazir mastered the part about speaking with passion even if she couldn’t really come to grips with the wit. Altaf gave the technique a twist by fusing urban bourgeois mannerisms with cocky Karachi street lingo.

But not all could truly master this art, and in less skilled hands, drama degenerated into something more debased and crude. The rallies were loud, yes, but increasingly devoid of wit and catering instead to the lowest instincts.

That’s what we saw in the Punjab in the rallies of Nawaz Sharif and the IJI (Islami Jamhoori Ittehad) just before the 1988 election. To combat Benazir’s populist antics and robust rallies, the IJI first floated obscene leaflets containing crudely engineered pictures of the late Benazir and her mother in which their heads were pasted on to the bodies of bikini-clad women.

Then newspapers reported how during an IJI rally in Lahore, some IJI leaders and workers had not only used obscene language against the two women, but (as one established Urdu newspaper reported), some of these leaders also made ‘crude, obscene gestures’. In other words, the Bhutto technique when it crossed over and was adopted by the rightists, mutated into a jamboree of reactionary abuse. This was perhaps due to the repulsion the rightists had felt watching populist politicians like Bhutto and parties like the PPP mocking middle and upper-middle-class mannerisms at rallies cheered along by the ‘jahil awam’ (illiterate masses).

However, over the years, Nawaz Sharif has greatly toned down his ways.

Today, even though the rallies of the PPP have largely retained their raving and inebriated character, and MQM rallies continue to be constant roller-coaster rides of sudden fluctuations between sombre, angry roars and populist, self-parodying Karachi wit, it is the concept of bourgeois populism in rallies that is making headlines.

Given currency by popular TV talk shows, this version has grown (as exemplified by PML-N and PTI rallies during the campaigning of the 2013 election).

Though Imran Khan now does manage to infuse some humour in his rhetoric and in his penchant of delivering tales of middle-class morality, it is stunning to note the utterly knee-jerk babble that so unapologetically rolls out from many of his young followers who are inspired by Khan’s bravado.

But PML-N’s leadership wasn’t so far behind during the campaigning as well.

Today, it is rather interesting to note that it is not the ‘awam’ that is getting all excited by such gabble anymore. Rather, it is the so-called educated, urban middle-class youth that is applauding away at this rough jabber.

Mind you (and rather ironically), this is the same section of society that otherwise found men like Bhutto and Altaf Hussain ‘uncouth’.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, September 7th, 2014