WHATEVER enters the salt-mine turns into salt is the translation of an ancient Persian aphorism. Imran Khan has entered the salt mine of Pakistani politics and will surely transform into a typical Pakistani politician as he has no other option.

His primary obsession is becoming prime minister which he considers a pre-requisite for creating a ‘Naya Pakistan’. Nevertheless, in our existing electoral system in which ‘first past the post’ is declared the winner, nobody can win elections without the support of electables.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto — a pragmatic politician — recognised this reality in 1977 and collected all the electables for his second and disastrous elections. In his experiment there is a lesson. Change in Pakistan is inevitable and overdue and the July election is the watershed.

We have touched rock bottom and now there is no way except to rise. The rush of the electables is fraught with turmoil which is an essential prerequisite for change. In any case this election will mark the end of family raj, which is the fountainhead of all problems in the country’s polity.

Change is the essence of life while, on the contrary, electables are the pillars of status quo. A progressive democracy cannot survive under the leadership of electables, hence the necessity for change.

Usman Shah

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2018