Cover Story 
 

Cover Story

Pakistan Uprising

The nation is at a crossroads where it can either fight back and say no to a manipulated future or give in, at least this one last time.

By Nikhat Sattar | February 2024

It is 2029; the Pakistani nation prepares for another national election after the government formed by cobbling together individuals from disparate parties and offering hefty money and in-kind to independents comes to the end of its five-year term. Fortunately, this time, unlike previously, it was not unceremoniously and suddenly removed through internal machinations and conspiracies that involved even foreign powers.

These five years have been tumultuous, to say the least. They have been marked by the highest inflation ever, high unemployment rates, and riots and anti-government rallies in almost every city and even rural area, with farmers taking to the streets. Unlike in early times, protesters included those from all walks of life, including housewives and the business community, especially students and young professionals. Despite (or perhaps because of) the manner in which the last elections in 2024 were held and the flagrant openness of intervention by the deep state, people have demonstrated their rage with hitherto unknown courage and consistency.

They have been jailed in large numbers; enforced disappearances have multiplied, and the rights of the individual have been given short shrift. These past five years have been one long night of anger, despair, and impotent hatred. Perhaps this will be the beginning of a Pakistan Uprising, with its people up in arms against the over 70 decade-old capture of resources and power by the unholy alliance of armed forces, politicians, and religious groups.

The above is not an unlikely description of the next five years, given how the forthcoming elections are being manipulated and the extent to which one party has been singled out for complete dismembering. Every high-level institution that matters, including the one mandated with upholding the Constitution, seems to be in cahoots to keep this party out, knowing it will win given a free and fair democratic process.
The party’s leadership is almost all behind bars, entangled in one frivolous case after another. Still, most damagingly, the party has been disallowed its uniting election symbol on flimsy technical grounds. No other party has been examined for transparency in its intra-party elections. Still, this one has been put under a microscope with enthusiasm and attention to minute detail, which is rarely visible in other cases. The Supreme Court, in its wisdom, thought it fit to give a legal cover to the ECP’s decision to strip the party of its election symbol.

It is openly known to all that these elections are being managed for one specific outcome: to put the PML-N and its allies back into power. With the Sharif dynasty assured of its win through dubious means at the center, the continuation of Bhutto’s party’s rule in Sindh, KPK, and Balochistan can be handled relatively easily. With their party symbol gone, the PTI candidates are forced to use individual symbols, likely confusing many educated voters, let alone a large number of illiterates. Even if some of them make their way to the assemblies, they would be easy prey for coercion to join other parties. This year, any win for the PTI will be impossible.


But the scheming powers may have made an error of judgment. Just because, at present, there are few loud voices in disagreement does not mean that the public at large has accepted the foregone conclusion with resignation. Anger is seething within society, foremost among those aged between 18 and 40. Although they believe that the elected candidates will not likely be able to bring about any positive changes in the high levels of poverty and unemployment, they are determined to vote in favour of the PTI.

It is openly known to all that these elections are being managed for one specific outcome: to put the PML-N and its allies back into power.

An online poll of around 6,000 individuals, mostly males with about 10 percent women, by the English national daily, Dawn, gives us some telling results. Nearly two-thirds will vote and the same number for the PTI, while more than 75 percent mark the performance of the PDM poor, and almost 80 percent believe that the ECP is not ensuring a fair and transparent election process.
True that this sample size is small and that it may not represent the majority, it is still worth considering that most literate people are wary of the ECP. Of all the elections held so far, this one has been most blatantly and severely controlled and managed to ensure the favourites obtain the seat of power. The state and those running its puppets have consistently acted to sow seeds of resentment and anger among people. Earlier elections, too, were rigged, but not to such an extreme extent.

With an inept PML-N and the remains of the befuddled PDM running the country, the next five years will only add fuel to the bubbling cauldron that comprises most of our younger generation. They will hold the hallowed deep-state actors safely ensconced behind their self-erected barriers and politicians with one leg in London and Dubai accountable and rise as one voice against the injustices committed against them. Civil unrest will reach such proportions that the saner elements within the judiciary, press, and human rights organizations will argue for an accountability process and elections to be held under strict international regulations.

Perhaps the above is a pipe dream: Our burgeoning population may have been so de-sensitized to crimes committed regularly against their person, honor, and property that a collective voice would be weak and ineffective, even if it were to be raised. Perhaps our youth will take these farcical elections as their fate, and perhaps we will continue to flounder as a country steeped in dire poverty and bereft of education and any illumination of knowledge and critical thinking.

But perhaps this would be the last time that the people of Pakistan will be fooled, cajoled, and forced into an oppressive cycle of empty promises, rhetoric, and an increasingly un-liveable environment of rising costs, lack of essential services, and endemic corruption. The nation is at a crossroads where it can either fight back and say no to a manipulated future or give in at least this one last time.
Hope and prayers are the tools our hapless people have been left with.

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