MARYAM Nawaz went to Japan and, as if on cue, practically everyone had a meltdown. I think a lot of the hate she especially receives is indicative of the deep rot of misogyny in this country. Ali Amin Gan­dapur or Murad Ali Shah would not garner the same resentment had they gone on the same trip, with their entourage and printed the same self-congratulatory advertisements. Prime time anchors would question the costs of the ad, the point of them etc, but not with a venomous style they reserve for Maryam.

So yes, misogyny for Maryam trumps everything and yet … she doesn’t help herself.

Maryam may be a good administrator, visionary and all the things claimed in the many advertisements about her leadership that get printed at taxpayers’ expense as everyone loves to point out. All the journalists angry at the advertisements may want to check their media organisations business model dependency on that advertising for survival but I digress. Maryam hasn’t understood that bad optics can sink political careers and hers particularly suffers from poor public perception.

Sadly, politics is all about optics. I wish it was about performance. It’s not what you say — for example, that cipher controversy — but how you say it — again the cipher’s lingering appeal stands. Politicians are able to convince voters about the most offensive, regressive ideas. We’ve got our backs to the corner, convinced that we can’t ‘touch’ any law based on religion, for example, because some elements will take to the streets and create hell. But I digress again. I was writing about optics.

Maryam hasn’t realised that bad optics can sink political careers.

Imagine if Maryam had undertaken this trip to Japan without the pomp. Even half the pomp.

Most of the debate around this trip has been around the optics of her entourage, who paid what and why, and the advertising spent on “her personal projection”. Pun­jab’s Information Minister Azma Bokhari, who accompanied her to Japan, has been giving press conferences debunking xyz claims and said, among other things, that Maryam bore the expenses herself. This has done little to quell the anger. Her trip overshadowed the worst floods in nearly 40 years.

I understand her government had to debunk false claims about this trip but they didn’t do a good job of that either. Soch Fact Check confirmed the video of the pro-Imran chants during a press conference by Maryam in Japan, as shared by PTI supporters on social media, is doctored. The organisation has debunked doctored videos of Maryam in the past as well.

A part of me thinks that Maryam knows that no matter what she does, it will never be good enough for her detractors so she’s ploughing ahead with her plans. A certain urban elite group of women especially hate her so Maryam’s focus is purely on her voter base. This is a mistake.

Maryam has not been able to shake off her party’s disconnect to Pakistan today, especially the youth. Fan cams of her father aside, young people are not taken in by ads. They want to leave this country and are dying to do so. More than the slick vlogs about her trips, they want results. They are likely put off by the supposed thousands of clinics she has named after herself. All this self-promotion is, as the kids say, ‘cringe’.

The irony is that she’s hoping this media blitz will help people forget about her opponent. However, the manner in which she’s doing it is only strengthening Imran Khan’s image as an austere leader who didn’t spend a lot of money on entourages or ad­­v­­­­­­ertisements.

Optics matter.

All of Pakistan’s lea­dership should wa­­t­­ch the unfolding eve­nts in Indo­nesia. Pro­t­ests began on Aug 25 aga­i­nst the hou­sing all­­o­w­ance given to MPs that was 10 times the min­­imum wage in Jakarta. This happ­e­n­ed at a time when the government has made cuts in education, hea­lth and public work. Incensed demo­nst­ra­t­ors have burnt and reportedly looted public buildings, including the parliament building in eastern Indonesia and the home of the finance minister. The protests against the ‘corrupt elite’ turned ugly last Friday after a video emerged of the paramilitary police running over a 21-year-old delivery driver while they were dealing with prot­e­sters. Although the president, an ex-gene­ral only a year into his presidency, has called for law enforcement to be firm with violent protesters, he has agreed to a cut in the MPs housing allowance and said he’ll reduce overseas trips for them, a rare conc­e­­­ssion to the protesters, reported The Guardian.

This is a story worth following not just for Pakistan’s leadership that is disconnected from people’s reality but also for citizens fed up with their needs not being met. I’m not condoning violence but there is power in organising as we’ve seen in Bangladesh and now in Indonesia with students showing us a different way is possible.

The writer is a journalism instructor.
X: @LedeingLady

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2025