Did Pakistanis Vote for the Status Quo?

Abstract

The latest – and possibly the last – period of military rule in Pakistan

ended in 2008, when elections were held under the thendictator

General Pervez Musharraf. The voting sprouted a

coalition government headed by the Pakistan Peoples Party that

ruled (or rather riled) the country for five excruciating years. The

ever-erring ruling group included the Pakistan Muslim League-

Nawaz, one of the many breakaway wings of the country’s

founding political movement.

The country has suffered ever since the Soviets invaded neighboring

Afghanistan, leading the United States and its allies to fund

the “mujahideen,” the tribal-based loosely organized Muslim

fighters from all over the world. After 9/11, President George W.

Bush’s attack on Afghanistan and hot pursuit of targets inside Pakistan,

not to mention the military dictator Musharraf’s wholesale

willingness to support the United States in all of its decisions, has

led to high levels of violence and instability.

The Pakistani political establishment has little to show for its efforts.

However, another development took root seventeen years ago.

Imran Khan, the internationally respected and loved sports heroturned-

philanthropist, realizing that acts of kindness alone would

not heal the country’s malaise, launched his own political party in

a quest for justice and equality in a society firmly controlled by the

feudal landed class created by the British to rule the Subcontinent.

After ignoring him for some fifteen years, despite his many sacrifices,

the nation finally heard him. But while his popularity boomed

in 2011, his attempt to empower the masses by bringing in “fresh

blood,” namely, young educated people, women, and even the poor

into the assemblies failed. The voters were, as many Pakistanis believe,

deprived of their choice, and thus the same exploitative feudal

class was returned to power. Khan has not fared too well, but at

least he has planted the seeds of inclusive participation. Whether

he can sustain it, however, remains to be seen.