Day 10: Old politics, 'naya' jargon

Locations: Musakhel, Wan Bhachran, Quaidabad, Mittha Tiwana, Hadali

(Click on images to enlarge)

I am now at the epicentre of 'the tsunami' – and feeling medium level jolts. Hence, I decided to do a 'special issue' on the PTI.

My very first meeting on day 1 of this voyage in the suburbs of Lahore was with a budding Gujjar aspiring for a PTI ticket. I have now called his brother to confirm that he has received the coveted nomination. They are political minnows of the area and were frustrated that the Nawaz League was not giving them the elevation they think they deserved in reward for 10 years of hard work for the party in the constituency. They are banking on their calculation of the 17000-18000 Gujjar votes of the area, while the naya Pakistan concert goes on in the background.

As I travelled to places, I found this was not an anecdote but a repeated pattern – those desperate to climb up the political ladder but blocked by the stronger contenders think there is no risk in trying the new label.

In the field, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf is just another political party, from the same traditional pack, struggling to find its niche in Pakistan's complex power matrix. Its electoral strategy is as traditional as are its candidates. There is hardly any thing 'naya' about this Pakistan.

Let me clarify that the party does not comprise only of back benchers, as it also has some front runners, but the ones who have fallen off, derailed or gone astray. Consider for example the Prachas of Sargodha, they have remained unsurpassed in the politics of their area for far too long but with one wrong move they are cut down to the provincial seat. They rebelled against their party, PPP, to support Musharraf in 2002 and then joined PML-Q. Now, Hasan Inam Pracha is the PTI candidate for the provincial seat PP 22.

For the first time ever there is no Pracha contesting for the national seat in this area, this is not without reason; let me elaborate. The People's Party had won this national seat, NA 64, in 2008 securing 65,000 votes that was barely 5,000 more than the tally of the Nawaz League while Pracha, contesting on the PML-Q ticket, had secured an impressive 45,000.

Pracha has now taken one step backward. It is a clever act of abstention, as now he can bargain his loyal vote bank with any of the two main contenders of the national seat and given the little margin of victory in this constituency, both the parties will be competing with each other to win Pracha's support. So he will win the provincial seat and the sympathy of the winner of the national seat, and that's called a win-win situation. But this is how the fourth generation of a political family is setting its game.

PTI is just a pawn in this game, not the player.

My disappointment with the 'naya' label was complete when I discovered that one member of the oldest political family of Mianwali, Ayla Malik, is a PTI nominee for the seats reserved for women while her sister, Sumera Malik, is a PML-N candidate in neighbouring NA 69 Khushab 1. Not that I am against personal political freedom but it is such a familiar story, an old political family pretending a rift, or even otherwise, sending one son or daughter each to all possible winners of a complex power game.

At the worker level as well 'PTI is the best revenge' for all those disgruntled by Nawaz League for whatever reasons, that vary between petty to selfish. The other stream of mohallah level workers of the new party has its origin in Jamaat-i-Islami.

Meet Asmat Khan Niazi, General Secretary, PTI, Musakhel:

But the die-hard supporters of Jamaat have decided to stay away. Watch what Haji Muhammad Khan, running a very small kiosk in Musakhel, had to say:

Then there are direct beneficiaries. I dropped off at the impressive campus of Namal College, on the bank of Namal lake set up by Imran Khan to talk to some students.

Naveed Anjum was rightly thankful to the college for providing him this wonderful opportunity to get higher education, and of good quality, in his home town.

In the Mianwali constituency, the Niazi factor also counts. I met many Niazis who took pride in Imran's self-righteousness in refusing the party ticket to his cousin Inamullah Niazi.

But there is no doubt that Imran has inspired some selfless workers as well. What ever the election results, the big challenge for the party will be to keep their dreams alive.