The tsunami that turned out to be a ripple in the pond

Pakistanis want change. They are tired of the status quo and the corruption that has permeated all levels of the society. Imran Khan's popularity shows that people want change. He is a new face and an honest guy who is enthusiastic about changing Pakistan. But somehow his immense popularity among the masses fails to translate into electoral victory. People translate their desire for change through their votes. Something weird happens when they get into the voting booth...they somehow press the "repeat" button in the voting booth instead of the "change" button! Is the voting booth some magical place where you enter and reality is altered or is it simply that we don't understand what change is?
I think we want change but we want others to change we want others to bring the change for us. We forget that change starts with ourselves; it can't be imposed upon you. We all dream, but don't want to take an actual step in the right direction to make that dream come true. We go in the voting booth and forget what issues the country is facing and who is best equipped to fix them instead we remember our tribal, ethnic, regional allegiances...we vote in self interest, not in the interest of the country.
 This doesn't bode well for Imran Khan or change. Constituency politics are alive and thriving, as seen by the recent by election results in Pakistan, where all the old faces were voted back into power in Punjab. The Bhuttos and the Sharif brothers will never be dethroned in their consituencies. Ameer Muqam no matter what party he joins will always win elections in his constituency, the Sherpaos, the Hotis and the Saifullahs will always win in their constituency.
 As long as regional, ethnic and tribal loyalties take priority over loyalty to the country there is no hope of change. Because of this, things don't look too good for Imran Khan as the face of change in Pakistan. People have high expectations from him but he can't perform miracles. Even he realized the limitations of our traditional electoral system and knew he couldn't win the elections without the help of old school career politicians who are always voted in by their people. He had to play ball. So he compromised his principals and added some old faces to his party, old horses with the new brand of PTI on them. He did this out of desperation to perform well in the elections. These sell out opportunistic politicians who go to the higest bidder jumped on Imran Khan's smooth sailing PTI ship. They went on (supposedly) the winning side...they thought they will be swept into power with Imran Khan's much hyped Tsunami. But then when someone came with a higher bid to win them back they jumped the PTI ship. They probably smelled trouble and just like rats, jumped the ship before the storm hit PTI. And now the much hyped Tsunami is starting to look more and more like a ripple in the pond. 
Revolutions don't come and change doesn't come just because someone says so. I think the problem with Imran Khan is that his most urgent and firm stand is the drone attacks to the exclusion of everything else. People of Pakistan have more urgent needs and a more severe situation staring them in the eyes: no jobs, no electricity, no water, high fuel and food prices and no sense of security or justice.
 The problem of home grown terrorism, the Balochistan issue, and he sees drones as the most important issue to highlight in his campaign? What about his main platform that he had started the party for....Justice? Why not follow up on that? Because justice is what this country needs badly. Just because the Chief Justice has been reinstated, justice hasn't been served. The whole judicial system needs an overhaul. People should be provided swift justice and no one should be above the law; that will solve a lot of Pakistan's problems. A little accountability goes a long way. As long as people feel above the law and as long as justice can be bought, no matter how many laws you put on the books and no matter how many revolutions you start nothing will change. We don't need any new kind of government or revolution and we wouldn’t need any interim government if there was accountability.
  The same old politicians, bureaucrats, judges and other leaders will have to do their job honestly if they know that they will be held accountable for their actions. People can keep voting in their family, tribesmen and bradri people but then those people will have to work honestly for fear of accountability. That is one way to bring about the change we are all dreaming of and hoping for. Provide justice for all and things will slowly start falling into place. And people will be forced to change.

That is when people come out in the streets.

         
When do people come out in the streets? When people have nothing left to lose and they have even lost all hope, is the day the people come out on the streets. Then only anger remains and they want to correct all the injustices done to them. Sub ko uss din say darna chaheyae.(Everyone should be afraid of that day).
 I hope that the anger is channeled sensibly and does not lead to further chaos and breakdown of the society. The poor man has been squeezed enough in Pakistan; middle class has been squeezed into lower middle class and lower middle class into poverty. The rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer. It is such a paradox...the very rich people of a poor country. The people are rich and the country is poor? I wonder how so?  The rich and influential will have to watch their backs, the people are coming. The day they can't even buy bread, like it happened in Egypt, revolution will come.
But in our country the situation is very confusing, the people are confused. It is a total "khichri" of things. Too many actors and too many players are confusing the picture on the ground for the ordinary people. Manufactured revolutions being thrown at the people as if they are the real deal. The pseudo revolution manufactured by the establishment itself, using faith as the salable goods, against the political system (democracy) in which thousands have already lost lives. Misguided and misfiring for the reason that it is not a true movement of the people by the people themselves but because they are being used as pawns in the bigger games of thrones. The pawns think they are their own masters...forgetting that they are just pawns in chess masters hands.
There are plots and subplots in the unfolding drama in Pakistan.  The rich and influential are fleecing the country and see nothing wrong with it. This is the land of might is right and the day the poor rise and become the mighty and snatch their rights from the few Rich and powerful will be the day Pakistan truly becomes "Pak"istan. It is "na" Pakistan right now. Pakistan is the Precious Pretty bride over which all the suitors are fighting without asking the poor bride what she wants. The parents of the bride making the wrong decisions for her...let the bride speak please.

Imran Khan... a Post Processed, Photo shopped, Manufactured Hero.

I am writing this with apologies to my freinds who are staunch Imran Khan supporters and there are quite a few of them, as his rising popularity shows. But before you all blow a fuse and come after me with a knife, please read what i have to say...it is for your own good and i hope somehow the message gets to Imran Khan as well, as it is for his own good too.

Some over enthusiusiatic supporters have been recently replacing Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah's face in Photographs with Imran Khan's face. One or two such pics might have been considered  good humoured fun, but now it is reaching to the point of ridiculousness! 

How ungrateful a nation can we be...that we are all OK with replacing our Founding Father's face with a newbee politician who has yet to prove himself as a great leader...who hasn't even been elected to office yet and who has yet to show his achievements. How can we be fine with that as a nation?

I am a great fan of Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and i personally find it offensive. And i feel by doing so we are insulting our founding father. How can we as a nation do that? Have we stooped to such a low now that we have forgotten our real heroes ...without whose efforts, there wouldn't even be a Pakistan, a place we could call a home for the Muslims of the Sub-Continent?

Apart form that, my dear Imran Khan supporters, it gives the impression of propaganda.You are trying too hard.

It is like you guys are trying to send Subliminal messages to the public, but it isn't even subliminal, it is so overt. It is childish!

It gives the impression that you are trying to manufacture an image for Imran Khan. It gives credence to the idea that he is a manufactured Hero/candidate. It perpetuates the myth.

I admit that he is very popular among the masses but popularity alone doesn't translate into success or heroism. Yes he has done great things with his hospital and he won the Cricket World Cup and he is a very honest guy but that automatically doesn't translate into a hero of such a calibre that he could replace Jinnah. If that is the criteria then we should be putting Abdus Saattar Edhi's photo in place of Jinnah's photo as well...he has done a lot of good for the people of Pakistan too and much more than Imran Khan...if i may say so.

He has to deliver and actually do something tangible for the country before we declare him a hero and start comparing him to JInnah. 

This is the first time in history that i have seen someone become a hero before he has actually done anything. All this leads to the speculation that someone and some people are trying too hard to make him into a hero.

Let him be...let him get elected first....and prove himself... let him implement some policies that will change the course of the country and once that happens he will be my Hero as well... But like i said...Populism doesn't equal Heroism.

The perfect example is Barack Obama...he was going to change the world...people loved him and he was very popular but his popularity didn't translate into action.

And even if Imran Khan can change the course of our nation, he still can't replace Jinnah... no one can take the place of Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Mohammad Ali Jinnah is Mohammad Ali Jinnah! 

I know our nation is in need of a real Hero and we the people want a Hero real bad...so bad that we are willing to manufacture one in our heads just to feel good. For a people needing real change this doesn't bode well