THE term ‘electables’ has been popularised over the last three decades with the rampant use of vast sums of money to invest in persons who stand a better chance of being elected. The agitation and protests by so-called loyalists not awarded party tickets to contest has never happened before.

Political parties such as the PTI, which has been preparing for elections since 2013, cannot afford to lose the polls as they have everything at stake. Consequently the number of PTI loyalists feeling disgruntled and cheated is the highest among all the parties.

These loyalists are justified in their protests as some of them have endured lots of hardships for being loyal to their leader and in pursuing the party agenda. They have been taking part in the sit-ins and agitations against the government with full commitment.

They now stand ditched by the leader when the time to reap the harvest has come. The world is ruthless but there should be a limit to selfishness among the leaders.

During the 1970 elections, the manifestoes and charisma of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in West Pakistan and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in East Pakistan were vibrant and they picked ordinary people and got them elected with overwhelming majority. The concept of ‘electables’ did not exist then and the use of money to buy favours if elected was unknown.

P. R.
Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2018