In the past few years, we have seen the politicians demonstrate the skill of making up stuff and lying to the public through their teeth, probably considering it a form of creative art or fiction rather than deception or falsehood, because I have yet to see anyone being apologetic or remorseful after their white lies are exposed. Be it Asif Zardari, regarding his wealth and properties, or Nawaz Sharif and his clan, regarding their money and assets in foreign lands, or Altaf Hussain and the MQM regarding the mysterious sources of their money and the lifestyle of their leader. The other lies regarding the pretend work that they seem to be doing is more or less for the consumption of the media and nobody takes them seriously anyway.
But it must be appreciated that the way this skill has been taken to the levels of a higher art form is the work of none other than the most popular contemporary leader of the young and enlightened in Pakistan – PTI Chairman Imran Khan himself. For one year, he has been able to demonstrate that if you state a falsehood with conviction and repeat it enough times then it mutates into an abstract truth for the public. He seemed convinced that the people would have little choice but to believe in what he says and do what he tells them to do, because a leader is born to lead and the public should follow. It should hardly matter as to where he is leading them.
Imran Khan started with the declaration of a New Pakistan. It is yet to be known what exactly he means by it. As any literary phrase, it has been purposely left open ended for everyone to have their own interpretation of it. His agitational politics started taking the form of a long march and then a sit-in which itself was a new twist to the old jaded style, and consisted of dance, music, and celebration for some mysterious reasons, and a lot of merry making in the capital city. Everybody including the leaders of PTI merrily danced atop the containers announcing the birth of a new Pakistan and the resignation of the sitting Prime Minster, as well as the collapse of the current regime and the parliament itself.
The colorful and joyous cultural show and sit-in was based on one premise, that the 2013 general elections in the country were fraudulent and its conclusive evidence was the thrilling tale of an intercepted and taped private conversation between the then caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab Najam Sethi and Mian Nawaz Sharif, in which he confessed that he has administered ‘35 punctures’ in the election.
The story reads like a James Bond movie where there is a US ambassador who receives the recording of the telephone conversation from a secret US intelligence service. He passes on the information to some hidden character who passes it on to another old politician belonging to an allied political party at his residence in a private meeting, from where it travels to the headquarters of PTI and the whole plot of the election rigging is exposed.
This story formed the basis of a year long campaign where the PTI chairman also claimed repeatedly that he had massive evidence of such a nature that the minute it would be presented in front of a judge, he would have no choice but to send the sitting government packing and declaring the whole election null and void. There were other minor characters in the story, as are there in any other interesting plot and they all fit in well.
As the great Gabriel Garcia Marquez once said, there is a little trick for all story tellers – if you say that there are elephants flying in the sky, people are not going to believe you. But if you say that there are four hundred and twenty-five elephants flying in the sky, people will probably believe you.
So we saw Imran Khan fly his 425 elephants and we also saw people not only seeing the elephants but also describing them in great detail. The most worthy observers were the media personnel, anchors and the journalists who were happy to report the flight in great detail.
The story went on and the situation kept changing, and the judicial commission was formed on the insistence of PTI. But when it came to the unveiling of the secret stash of evidence, there was none to either prove the rigging or pin it on any one party. The ‘villain designate’ was not exposed or caught and the secret schemers remained secret. It is a shame that like in a JamesBond movie, the victorious hero could not just have his fun in the sun in the last scene with some smashing music in the background.
The whole plot of the story crumbled, but if you think that it was able to shake the confidence of Imran Khan, you have to think twice. In a recent TV interview, Khan himself admitted that there was indeed no evidence to back the story and it was just a, ‘political statement’. He was not embarrassed in the least to say this on national television, nor did he think it made any difference to the listeners, as he was a leader and therefore not to be challenged on anything. As if he can say anything he deemed fit according to the situation.
Unfortunately, as a viewer of the famous interview, I was stunned – not to hear the admission of it being totally fabricated, but by the sheer nonchalant manner in which he admitted it. The slight shrug of his shoulders, half a crocked smile and a ‘let’s not waste our time on it and move on’ manner.
I am still unable to wrap my head around the fact that this can be achieved with such effortless ease and tranquility. I know I might be naive in believing that the truth is worth anything in politics anymore, but the sheer audacity of it all is taking the game up to a new glorious height.
The other amazing thing is the reaction of the fans and supporters of PTI who are seeing and hearing this but somehow even this is not enough to jolt them out of the inertia. They are unable to bring themselves to ask their leader the meaning of building a whole campaign on a fabricated story.
I believe that unless there is some accountability, some reasonable reaction from within the parties, the leaders will continue to get away with making fools of everyone. Has anyone from PTI asked him any of the right questions? What about the man who was targeted by them? Does anyone think there was any injustice done to him? What about fair play? What about integrity? What about honour? What about remorse on doing wrong and insisting on it? What about making tall claims and not being able to deliver on them? Nothing, it seems, is enough to make the leader accountable.
Interestingly, it was not Najam Sethi alone who was called a fraud during the sit-in. The entire Parliament was called a fraud. And then the we saw the elected members of PTI return to the same building and taking their seats once again. Has anyone in the party asked why such claims were made which were never intended to be fulfilled?
Again, Imran Khan did not show any embarrassment in doing exactly the opposite of what he had stated during the sit-in, and on top of that, accepting the salary for even the time he did not attend the sessions but spent in abusing and insulting the parliament.
He called the election system fraudulent, and then was only too eager to take part in the by-elections all over the country under the same system. He said that he believes in free and fair elections, and then everybody saw the mayhem in the local bodies’ elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where PTI provincial ministers were caught stealing whole ballot boxes. He appointed a commission for an inquiry of complaints against the intra-party election in PTI, but when the results came out and were not according to his wishes, he summarily dismissed the commission and kicked the members out of the party.
None of this is surprising to me, but what is really surprising and disappointing is that workers and supporters of PTI still have not been able to find the courage to stand up and demand answers.
Noreen Haider is a freelance journalist based in Lahore
But it must be appreciated that the way this skill has been taken to the levels of a higher art form is the work of none other than the most popular contemporary leader of the young and enlightened in Pakistan – PTI Chairman Imran Khan himself. For one year, he has been able to demonstrate that if you state a falsehood with conviction and repeat it enough times then it mutates into an abstract truth for the public. He seemed convinced that the people would have little choice but to believe in what he says and do what he tells them to do, because a leader is born to lead and the public should follow. It should hardly matter as to where he is leading them.
The story reads like a James Bond movie
Imran Khan started with the declaration of a New Pakistan. It is yet to be known what exactly he means by it. As any literary phrase, it has been purposely left open ended for everyone to have their own interpretation of it. His agitational politics started taking the form of a long march and then a sit-in which itself was a new twist to the old jaded style, and consisted of dance, music, and celebration for some mysterious reasons, and a lot of merry making in the capital city. Everybody including the leaders of PTI merrily danced atop the containers announcing the birth of a new Pakistan and the resignation of the sitting Prime Minster, as well as the collapse of the current regime and the parliament itself.
The colorful and joyous cultural show and sit-in was based on one premise, that the 2013 general elections in the country were fraudulent and its conclusive evidence was the thrilling tale of an intercepted and taped private conversation between the then caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab Najam Sethi and Mian Nawaz Sharif, in which he confessed that he has administered ‘35 punctures’ in the election.
The story reads like a James Bond movie where there is a US ambassador who receives the recording of the telephone conversation from a secret US intelligence service. He passes on the information to some hidden character who passes it on to another old politician belonging to an allied political party at his residence in a private meeting, from where it travels to the headquarters of PTI and the whole plot of the election rigging is exposed.
This story formed the basis of a year long campaign where the PTI chairman also claimed repeatedly that he had massive evidence of such a nature that the minute it would be presented in front of a judge, he would have no choice but to send the sitting government packing and declaring the whole election null and void. There were other minor characters in the story, as are there in any other interesting plot and they all fit in well.
As the great Gabriel Garcia Marquez once said, there is a little trick for all story tellers – if you say that there are elephants flying in the sky, people are not going to believe you. But if you say that there are four hundred and twenty-five elephants flying in the sky, people will probably believe you.
So we saw Imran Khan fly his 425 elephants and we also saw people not only seeing the elephants but also describing them in great detail. The most worthy observers were the media personnel, anchors and the journalists who were happy to report the flight in great detail.
The story went on and the situation kept changing, and the judicial commission was formed on the insistence of PTI. But when it came to the unveiling of the secret stash of evidence, there was none to either prove the rigging or pin it on any one party. The ‘villain designate’ was not exposed or caught and the secret schemers remained secret. It is a shame that like in a JamesBond movie, the victorious hero could not just have his fun in the sun in the last scene with some smashing music in the background.
The whole plot of the story crumbled, but if you think that it was able to shake the confidence of Imran Khan, you have to think twice. In a recent TV interview, Khan himself admitted that there was indeed no evidence to back the story and it was just a, ‘political statement’. He was not embarrassed in the least to say this on national television, nor did he think it made any difference to the listeners, as he was a leader and therefore not to be challenged on anything. As if he can say anything he deemed fit according to the situation.
Unfortunately, as a viewer of the famous interview, I was stunned – not to hear the admission of it being totally fabricated, but by the sheer nonchalant manner in which he admitted it. The slight shrug of his shoulders, half a crocked smile and a ‘let’s not waste our time on it and move on’ manner.
I am still unable to wrap my head around the fact that this can be achieved with such effortless ease and tranquility. I know I might be naive in believing that the truth is worth anything in politics anymore, but the sheer audacity of it all is taking the game up to a new glorious height.
The other amazing thing is the reaction of the fans and supporters of PTI who are seeing and hearing this but somehow even this is not enough to jolt them out of the inertia. They are unable to bring themselves to ask their leader the meaning of building a whole campaign on a fabricated story.
I believe that unless there is some accountability, some reasonable reaction from within the parties, the leaders will continue to get away with making fools of everyone. Has anyone from PTI asked him any of the right questions? What about the man who was targeted by them? Does anyone think there was any injustice done to him? What about fair play? What about integrity? What about honour? What about remorse on doing wrong and insisting on it? What about making tall claims and not being able to deliver on them? Nothing, it seems, is enough to make the leader accountable.
People saw the elephants and described them in great detail
Interestingly, it was not Najam Sethi alone who was called a fraud during the sit-in. The entire Parliament was called a fraud. And then the we saw the elected members of PTI return to the same building and taking their seats once again. Has anyone in the party asked why such claims were made which were never intended to be fulfilled?
Again, Imran Khan did not show any embarrassment in doing exactly the opposite of what he had stated during the sit-in, and on top of that, accepting the salary for even the time he did not attend the sessions but spent in abusing and insulting the parliament.
He called the election system fraudulent, and then was only too eager to take part in the by-elections all over the country under the same system. He said that he believes in free and fair elections, and then everybody saw the mayhem in the local bodies’ elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where PTI provincial ministers were caught stealing whole ballot boxes. He appointed a commission for an inquiry of complaints against the intra-party election in PTI, but when the results came out and were not according to his wishes, he summarily dismissed the commission and kicked the members out of the party.
None of this is surprising to me, but what is really surprising and disappointing is that workers and supporters of PTI still have not been able to find the courage to stand up and demand answers.
Noreen Haider is a freelance journalist based in Lahore